New Rex Ray book and mural

I'm such a huge fan of Rex Ray. I remember seeing some of his early pieces at this store called Homework in Los Angeles. I thought his collages were so simple and brilliant and I loved how he used magazine clippings for color and texture. Cut to a few years later and now he's huge and amazing and sold at Jonathan Adler. He has a new book coming out this fall from Chronicle books that you can preorder now at Amazon. It's called Rex Ray Art + Design. I have one of his other books that I bought at the Jonathan Adler store when I was in Chicago, but this one looks like it will be bigger and perhaps have more! I was looking on his website and in the News section that he recently completed this mural painting for the Bank of America headquarters in San Francisco! What gorgeous colors! It totally reminds me of those stunning iconic murals of Mary Blair, for Disnyeland!

cupcake baking cup garland

I always enjoy looking at the window displays at Anthropologie- they always have some great ideas. While in NYC a few weeks ago, I spotted this fun idea- They used different colored paper and foiled cupcake baking cups as garland- Would look great for a party- even as everyday decor if strung in a grouping maybe in a corner with some string lights or something... what do you think?

Jonathan Adler and C. Jeré!

Wow- Jonathan Adler really scored! He was able to get an exclusive partnership with the C. Jeré studio to release 4 amazing classic designs. If you're not aware, C. Jeré stands for Curtis Jeré and their studio churned out tons of these brass sculptures back in the 50's-70's that are now classics and now highly collectible for any mid century modern fan. The funny thing is that "Curtis Jeré" is not a real person. I read about it in a recent issue of Modernism magazine, which I posted about on AT:LA awhile back. (Read more about C. Jeré here. ) Check out the iconic designs here.

Time for Timer!...

and then when you get the late afternoon munchies...

Target College 07 catalog

Target's latest College 07 catalog came in the mail the other day. This year's theme is "Brave new Dorm". Now, it's been a loooooooong time since I was in college, but I always enjoy browsing the college offerings, because generally, it's this time of the year where you can find affordable versions of more trendier furnishings. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed with this one in comparison to last year's awesome offerings. Which, for those that have been following me on this blog know, is weird for me to say, because I'm a huge fan of everything Targé. However, this year's caatalog seems almost like a not-as-good "knock off" from last years. That being said, there still are a few noteworthy things. I'm liking some of the prints on the bedding. Some of the camo pieces could be kinda fun too. There is also this really clever lamp that has multi outlets on it. It reminds me of the lamps I see in hotel rooms, where the outlet is conveniently on the side, so you don't have to search all over for a plug. Plus, it's nice to see a classier looking task lamp than your traditional swing arm or moveable arm one. None of this stuff seems to be up on the website yet for purchase, but I have been seeing it creeping into the stores within the past few days. I'm sure more is coming so stop by your local store to check it out in person. In the meantime, you can explore the mini-site here.

Tara Donovan

I'm surprised I've never mentioned Tara Donovan before, but apparently I haven't. If you are not familiar with her, she does some amazing installation pieces using "mundane" objects. Her installations are large scale and incredibly intricate. She'll create landscapes made out of cups, stacked drinking straws, sculptures with fishing wire, or pencils. You can view a lot of these at the Ace Gallery in NY. A few years ago, I remember seeing this stunning image of hers from mocoloco, of a large cube made of toothpicks.
The latest issue of Surface Magazine (#66) showcases some of her past work and also notes some of her most recent pieces. She did a series of ink drawings and relief prints from rubber bands that form interesting organic patterns. Surface Mag describes them as "organic formations resembling sea grass and anemones." She is quoted as saying "It is not like I’m trying to simulate nature. It’s more of a mimicking of the way of nature, the way things actually grow."

I am in awe of the patience she must have, but I guess it's a good reminder to slow down a bit and appreciate the forms that are right in front of you... More images at the PaceWildernstein Gallery.

Unison home bedding

If you're looking for summer palette inspiration, I'm in love with the latest offerings from Unison home. I think the image above feel so fresh and could translate to any kind of room. I love the combination of the light grey with the hits of forest green and peachy/sherbert-y orange. The light blue and turquoise accents finish it off with just the right punch. I also love how simple and graphic their bedding is with just clean thin stripes. Check out the rest of their line at their website.

Sanna Annukka online Shop!

Ugh. so yesterday's "allergies" have morphed into full blown sickness/cold. ugh. i hate being sick in the summer. it's so lame and a waste of time. sux to be me.
anyways- in happier news- I just got an email announcing the opening of Sanna Annukka's online shop! I mentioned Sanna Annukka last year, she's the one who did those incredible Keane covers. Well, she's now selling limited edition prints and soon, other items including jewelry, textiles, and stationery! I hope she sells some of those mugs and stuff i am seeing on the pictures- they are AMAZING. Check out the prints she has on sale right now at her shop. I am dying over this gold foil one...

Blue Munday: Hot Tamales Ice

Ugh. It's munday and I can't breathe. I woke up with a runny nose that isn't going away. Last night I started sneezing spontaneously and I think it's allergies because my head feels fine and I don't feel sick, just the nose thing. Ugh. I hate it when I feel like this and it's hot outside. Anyone have any good sinus/allergy remedies?

In the meantime, not that this will help anything, but I discovered this new candy over the weekend. I'm sure many of you are familiar with Hot Tamales. Those chewey spicy cinnamon flavored candies that are a movie night staple. Well, they've now come out with Hot Tamales "ICE"- which kind of is an oxymoron I guess. They have the same shape and consistency, but they have an icy cool minty flavor instead. They're actually quite yummy. And they're kinda pretty too- all aqua with light specks of icy frost white-ness... (don't worry, it's not mold!). So for this blue munday, I give you some Hot Tamales Ice!... try some if you see it at the counter.

Kate Spade Book covers

How awesome are these bookcovers (perhaps to conceal that scandously trashy novel you're reading... you know who you are, hehe)- by Kate Spade?! download them for free here (click on "downloads) What are you reading this summer?

table light idea in BluePrint

Happy Thursday! It's such a weird week for me, since today feels like a monday- (since we had July 4th holiday yesterday, and I've been in NY since Saturday) yet it's actually Thursday, which means the weekend is going to start tomorrow! I really should have just taken the rest of this week off, but alas, I have projects and clients to tend to, so... a slave I must be. I hope everyone that did have a holiday yesterday enjoyed it. I saw this great idea in the latest Blueprint magazine for transforming a simple wine glass into a cute table light. So simple but so elegant and fun! I don't know if I'd necessarily need to do put the design graphics on it, I'd probably just opt for it to be plain, but it looks fun nonetheless. Have any of you considered or have done something like this? By the way, in case you missed the very first issue of Blueprint (which came out about this time last year), did you know you can download it? Click here.

Apple Juice bottle birdhouse by Marcel Wanders

I love this Apple Juice Bottle Birdhouse by Marcel Wanders for Droog (via dezeen). I wonder if it couldn't be a fun DIY project...

Blue munday: mundane aesthetic: city blue

Happy munday. Just a little blue from the city...

a quick bite out of a big apple

happy saturday- or well, what's left of it. I find myself tonight in NYC! I guess in retrospect it probably isn't the most ideal time to be travelling across the nation, what with scary fire bombs going off in airports and increased security and all... but alas, the big city calls. I'm only here for a few days, but hoping to soak up lots of visual fun, as the city never fails to provide. If you're an NYC happy mundane-er that happens to catch this, i'm here til tuesday- let me know if there's anything new I should check out- here's the view from my hotel tonight (I'm right by TimesSquare)The one exciting thing so far is that I got to play with one of those new iphones at the big apple store on 5th. oooooh fun! it's really really cool. I even tried calling someone at it worked! anyways- Tomorrow (sunday) i'm hittin' Brooklyn! stay tuned...

Surf Shack Chic

Today on AT:LA I posted the final two designers from the 1.7 Ocean showcase homes. These were my favorites as they embodied the surf/skate/retro so cali lifestyle that makes living here in OC special. Check out the post here. I love the green/seafoam colors both designers used, and all the vintage paintings... great inspiration if you're looking for some summer freshen-up ideas for your place.

Diesel: super holographic cool

ooooooh- special effects!! check out the super cool holographic effects at the Diesel "Liquid Space" fashion show for Spring/Summer 08 (it's kinda long...)

here's the preview for it-

Todd Oldham's door pulls

I LOVE these branch door pulls that Todd Oldham used in his treehouse that Design*Sponge mentioned and House&Garden is featuring on their site. I also love the cool wood veneer design in the background. I betcha you could do something fun like that with contact paper... hm... more ideas....

Decorating with straws

You can always count on Anthropologie for fun display ideas, and this one really seemed perfect for summer. They used simple white and clear bendy drinking straws in lieu of flowers. It looked great paired up with the green/blue tones of the glass and japanese-ish pottery plates. They even connected a few together for height that resembled modern branches. Might need to try something with straws at home... (I think I saw a pack of those straws at IKEA)...

Lamp idea at 1.7 Ocean

I've been posting over at AT:LA, coverage of the 1.7 Ocean event. 1.7 Ocean is this new housing development in Costa Mesa, CA, and they recently had an event that brought together lots of local OC design/fashion businesses and the featured attraction were 4 showcase bungalows that were done by local interior designers. Inside one of them, by designer Andrew Virture of Andrew Virture Desgins, I spotted this fun little lamp "hack". All the homes at 1.7 Ocean come with these Ikea FADO lamps, and Andrew added a little vintage flare to it. He placed a vintage double tiered lamp shade on top. I think it looks great and is a fun idea to customize a pretty basic shape. It worked well with the rest of his vintage/surf inspired decor. I'll be posting a tour of the bungalow he designed later today... but check out this bungalow from designer Natalie Umbert, and this one from designer Mo Brias.

No. 10 Letterbox

Saw these really great and clever mailboxes in the July/August 2007 Dwell magazine. Created by Mark Naden of Pure Design, I love how functional the design of your basic envelope is. I love how the barcode is actually perforated so you can peek inside! Available here, but unfortunately looks like they're sold out right now, but hopefully they'll get more in soon! (Image via Dwell)

Tuesday distraction...

(sigh) It's only Tuesday. Here's a litle distraction... "won't you join me?"



"It's everything you've always wanted to do... and Audrey Hepuburn's the one you've always wanted to do it with..."

Blue Munday: Perfect backyard

Well, I think I've found my perfect dream backyard! This backyard is from the July/August 2007 Metropolitan Home. It's part of Michael and Kathleen Ferguson's gorgeous Los Angeles house. It's ideal for me because it's totally low maintenance, has enough of a patio to hang out on, has a great view, and just the right size lap pool. (Oh, and I love the blue patio chairs too!) Insert me where the guy is swimming, and I'd be one happy camper. (I'll even take the dog too!)

More books in Elle Decor july/August 2007

Recently picked up the latest July/August 2007 Elle Decor, and noticed a few interesting things- One- I am soo jealous of the house of Trina Turk. I posted it on AT:LA. Soooo lovely. Next, I saw two more interesting treatments for books in a bookcase. You'll recall the white on white thing I mentioned before- Well, I spotted this detail in this image for Lauren Henson's home.At first, I was intrigued with the gold color on the spines, and thought they had done something similar to the white slip cover thing- but upon closer inspection, I realized that all the books were facing backwards- with the spine to the back of the case. This seems really weird to me, and I wonder if it wasn't just something done for the photoshoot. How would you know what book it was without seeing the spine? I do like the visual look, but just not practical. Unless you never planned on reading them and they were purely for decoration. I do like how the painting sits on top and in front of the bookcase. I've seen it done before, and think it's a great way to add some interest to a bookcase.

And then a few pages later, there's another cool bookcase idea. This time involving visual "colorblocks". Here, they've intentionally mixed their collection of what seems like National Geographics, and clumped them into big groupings that form these yellow rectangular graphics. What a great way to utilize a big collection ! It adds so much punch and color. Sadly most magazine spines are hardly ever the same color, but perhaps a large book collection of similar colored spines could be used to achieve a similar look. There's been much blog talk of arranging your books by color, but perhaps instead of a simple rainbow effect, you could mix it up into color blocks? What do you guys think?

Ben Loiz Nike Joga Bonito mural

I recently picked up the Summer 2007 issue of Plus 81, a japanese design magazine. The Summer issue is their "west coast" issue and features tons of the great designers from here on "the west siiiide.."- One piece that really caught my eye was from designer Ben Loiz, who created this really fun mural for Nike's Joga Bonito campaign last year. To create the mural, he basically took a soccerball and dipped it in paint and bounced it up against the wall to create a print. I'm not sure how they got it to be so perfect, but there's a movie on his site that shows the process. Pretty neato! I'm not sure if it's still up, but if anyone is in the LA area, the mural is apparently on Suplveda Blvd, at 4310 Suplveda... I'd love to do this in a room somewhere.... like a blank wall in front of a dining table or something.... kind of like those pieces from Damien Hirst- Check out Ben's site for more coolness...

Ando and friends

I picked up a t-shirt recently from a brand I hadn't heard of before. It's a surf brand called Ando & Friends. It's done by artist Andy Davis, who has his own personal site for his artwork. I was just immediately attracted to the simple, happy, and somewhat innocent quality of his work and designs. Perfect for a lazy summer day by the beach...

A little sauce-y

Was in Crate&Barrel yesterday and fell in love with this little little soy sauce pot! It's only $3.95 and in a fresh spring green color.