Moments of Beauty

Gorgeous portrait of model Fei Fei Sun, photographed by Josh Olins for the November 2011 issue of Vogue China. More from the same lovely shoot here.


(via fashion gone rogue)

Open Concept

The Danish apartment of Rebecca, husband Jeppe and daughter is rather like a classic artist's studio in concept — lots of space, white walls and skylights for plenty of natural light. Stylist Rikke Graff Juel helped bring it all together for them, integrating the living room, kitchen, dining room and office all into one room, with just the bedroom, nursery and bathroom sectioned off from the main space for privacy, while a balcony and rooftop terrace give them access to the outdoors, too. Rebecca and Jeppe love how they can keep each other company even while doing different things — and there's definitely a warm sense of family permeating their space. More here. Via Bolig.


(photography by tia borgsmidt)

Simple Pleasures

Vinyl records. I'm very glad I was a teen before the internet — amazing as it is, nothing can describe our excitement over heading downtown to the little indie record shops on the weekends to check out which import singles arrived that week. Many evenings were spent reading the British independent 'zines and listening in late at night to the CBC and local alternative radio stations, checking out what was new. So much fun — and so much great music from that time, too (Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Smiths, Siouxie, Joy Division, Ramones, Kate Bush, Echo and the Bunnymen and many many more).


(lovely photo by mikkel adsbøl)

Atelier: Hair-Raising Fashion

Today I'm admiring hair stylist Peter Gray's wildly imaginative hairstyles, created with Masa Honda and beautifully photographed by Takahiro Ogawa for the Asia Beauty Expo. I love how mysteriously lovely these images are. More info and full artistic credits here.


(via design bureau)

Browse: Llama's Valley

I just discovered the gorgeous Lithuanian lifestyle e-magazine Llamas' Valley on a recent post by Victoria of sfgirlbybay, and I'm utterly smitten — beautiful interiors, fashion, food and more, all stunningly photographed. Highly recommended. Have a look at their first English edition here.

Monday

Hope your Monday is the start of a positive and productive week. Have a good one.


(lovely photo from the portfolio of stylist lili diallo)

Print Shop to Loft

Located in Madrid, this house started out life as a print shop with an attached house. Its first renovation retained the original wood floors, brick and beams, but converted the property into two separate lofts built around a central courtyard. The current owner, an architect, especially loved the high ceilings of the two spaces but wanted room and natural light — his solution was to combine the two lofts into one space, getting rid of walls downstairs but keeping the two attics upstairs, which now serve as bedroom and work spaces. Now furnished with family antiques, vintage pieces and some made by the owner, it's a relaxed and airy family home. More here on micasa.

Weekend

Happy weekend! Hope it's a good one. We'll be having a fairly leisurely one — though I think Andrew will be watching a bit of soccer! How about you?


(lovely photo by eric piasecki)

Elegantly Modern

This is the lovely Helsinki home of interior designer Tanja Jänicke, who was fortunate enough to fall in love with a fine carpenter who shared her taste in design — the result is their elegant modern house, a mix of white, black and natural materials where they happily entertain family and friends. Love this one. More here on Bolig.


(photography by lykke foged)

Giveaway!

Want to just forget about the miserable weather for a while? The delicious Rose Sugar Scrub from the lovely GardenApothecary shop will definitely help soothe your winter blues away — it turns an ordinary shower into a blissful spa experience. Hand made using 100% organic ingredients (including Rose Absolute Oil, Sugar, Almond Oil and Vitamin E) and packaged in an amber glass jar, this luxurious scrub will leave you feeling pampered and ready to face the greyest February day. For a chance to win a 9 oz. jar, just leave a comment below with a contact link (so we can let you know if you win!) before midnight EST on March 1 2012. Good luck! Thanks so much to Jenn of GardenApothecary for her lovely generosity!


(top photo by kate mathis, bottom photo from gardenapothecary)

Smile

One of my faves from the fun photo blog Maddie On Things by photographer Theron Humphrey, featuring his charming hound Maddie perched on shelves, mailboxes, shopping carts, TVs and more. You can order prints, too!


(photo by theron humphrey. via swiss miss)

Sweetness and Light

Love the delicately muted tones of this still life by photographer Ditte Isager, taken for Copenhagen Food — so lovely.

Buffet

This week's links. Enjoy.

In Miss Eudora's Garden
Margaret Eby writes a lovely account of her visit to Eudora Welty's home and garden (especially the garden) in Jackson, Mississippi. Wonderful.

Update: There's something really odd happening to the link to the Welty post on The Paris Review — if you can't get to the page using the above link you can copy and paste this long one: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/02/20/in-miss-eudora’s-garden/

The Artist and the Lost Art of Silent Films
Buoyed by the many small pleasures of the recent silent film The Artist, New Yorker film critic David Denby reviews the best of silent cinema. Incidentally, do go and see The Artist — it's utterly charming.

The 50 Coolest Albums Of All Time
Shortlist magazine lists their 50 picks for the coolest listening ever — fun to see old faves, discover some new ones, and, of course, disagree about others.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Thanks to Project Gutenberg,the full text of the 1811 Dictionary in the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose is online — and very amusing reading it is, too. Makes present day slang look positively dull in comparision. Via kottke.

Anjelica Huston
Excerpts from the memoir of the wonderful actress Anjelica Huston, who's led an extraordinary life.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Doghouse
Curious but true: Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned in 1956 to design a doghouse — eventually it was built, but the dog refused to sleep in it. Follow the link to see the original plans and a modern reconstruction of the doghouse, too.

A Guide to Literary Tumblrs
The Millions has a great list of literary hangouts on the web. Lovely reading.

Keeping the Monsters Out
Hope of the lovely The French Mouse blog is currently raising money for a very worthy cause — a security wall for an orphanage in Honduras. A donation of $5.00 or more will go towards keeping safe children who were rescued out of lives of unimaginable poverty, neglect and abuse — and who are in daily danger of being stolen in the night and dragged back into a nightmare for the profit of others. The link above takes you to Hope's post about the charity — you can donate directly here.

Ten February Favourites
Gourmet has a lovely slide show of 10 delicious recipes for chilly February evenings, including Farmhouse Butternut Squash Soup, Apricot Almond Lindzertorte, Beer Braised Beef and Onions, Black Bean Burgers and Parmesan Pull-Aparts.


(lovely photo by paul raeside)

Smitten

I'm smitten with the Kitchen Apron in oatmeal from Studiopatró — love the crossed straps at the back, which eliminate strain on the neck (always my biggest issue with aprons).

Moments of Beauty

I don't wear much pattern as a rule, but I'm really liking this snakeskin print coat — and the doll makeup is intriguing, too. More from the same shoot here. Via fashion gone rogue.


(model jemma baines photographed by christopher morris for black magazine #15)

Small and Charming

A tiny space (516 square feet) and even tinier budget was no impediment to architect Lukáš Kordík’s decision to renovate his flat in Bratislava, Slovakia — as you can see, the result is amazing. I especially love the blue cabinetry in the kitchen, an off-the-rack Ikea system that Lukáš made his own by altering the facing and pulls, creating cutouts instead of using door handles. The biggest job was knocking down several walls to open up the space and allow natural in — the only wall Lukáš added was a translucent glass one, which allows light into the bathroom as well as serving as a support to the bookshelves and culinary storage made from black film­–faced plywood. A finished oak floor and striking concrete ceiling complete the look of this great industrial modern apartment. Love. Find out more in the article on Dwell here.

Sponsor Spotlight

Charmaine of Lobo Luxe has a great suggestion for anyone looking for contemporary jewelry that's also environmentally friendly — the lovely work of Shauna Mayben. Working mostly in upcycled sterling silver & perspex, Shauna uses found vintage photos in her work as well, as can be seen here with her Past Tense Pendant. Shauna is also happy to create a personalized pendant using your own image, too — perfect for a special gift. See more of her lovely work here.





The charming Keepsake Boxes series at Small Equals continues to grow, and lately Liza has been using pages from well-loved old children's books for the box tops. As it turns out, Tibor Gergely's firemen illustrations for the Little Golden Books editions have proven to be very popular — and Liza herself has become so fascinated with Gergely's beautiful work that she's taken the time to do a bit of research into his life. You can find Gergely and other book boxes at the shop here — they are one-of-a-kind, though, so do check back regularly to see what's new (other children's book boxes like Angus and The Cat by Marjorie Flack and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland are currently in the works).





Michelle of the delightful etsy shop The Art of Michelle has exciting news — she is now offering custom 8" x 10" watercolour portraits through her site! Painted on quality 90lb hot press watercolor paper, each portrait also includes your favorite flower as the border plus up to 3 birds of your choosing, if you like. I can't think of a nicer gift for a loved one. Find out more here.