Woo hoo! Happy 2008! Time to get back to work and keep on movin'! I'm always excited about this time because it means all the stores are clearing through the holiday stuff and making room for all the Spring items, which means lots of new eye-candy to look at! Over the weekend, I noticed that Target is already launching the latest collections for the Global Bazaar. This year they've added two new color stories, a yellow/black/white story and a Blue+purple. When I first saw the yellow/black/white- my initial thought was- oy- haven't we seen that colorstory trend to death already? I mean, ever since Kelly Wearstler did the Viceroy Palm Springs, which was like... almost 5 years ago? it seemed like all the designers jumped on it- granted it's a great classic look and can still feel fresh if done right - and that's just what happened when I actually looked at the pieces. I found myself liking that one the most! Perhaps it's just taken this long for it to finally translate down to the masses... but I'm feelin' the yellow. I'm not sure if I'd do a room so paired down to only those three colors (yellow, black, white) but there are definitely some pieces in the collection I'm loving. I'm especially eyeing this Starburst mirror that's only $89! It's from the Bronze room collection. Crate&Barrel has had one for a while now that is $199- but Target is also offering this handy in-store coupon, so you could get the mirror for $79! Anyways- when I went to my local Target, they were just starting to put up the displays and fill the shelves. I can't wait to go back later and see it fully stocked. The whole collection is up online though... check it out and comment here if you're seeing anything that catches your eye!
Wow. I am so enamored with these sculptures by Régis Mayot that was on AT:NY for an AT:Europe report about this show in Paris. The show features emerging artists that use recycled materials. (via mocoloco via AT:NY)
oooh- just got this email from Lisa Solomon, who is having a joint show with artist Aura Robson, called "couplets" starting tomorrow January 5th, at the SQFT gallery in Nashville, TN. They've made a bunch of pieces that are meant to hang together side by side. Look at the amazing yellow/grey/white combo! (Lisa's embroidered piece is on the right) Gorgeous. The works will be available for sale on the SQFT gallery website starting monday, January 7th!
Martha Stewart has had her Colors paint collection for awhile, but it was only recently that I discovered that they were available at Lowes. The collection is from Valspar, and sold through Lowes. I happened to be needing some touch up paint, and saw these little inspiration cards at the bottom of the swatch wall. I am in love with the way they combined everything in the image above. The graphic-ness of Dutch blue wall stripe (they call the color "blue ticking") combined with the darker warm blue and grey accent pillows on the chocolate brown bedding... the black side table, vase... and the unexpected yellow pop from the artwork and the burlap fabric of the lampshade makes the whole thing feel completely fresh and modern. I also love this office area they showed, with the classic black and white motif. If only my office could be so organized and minimal. (sigh)... but then, I have this theory that if your office is tooo clean, then that means you're not really doing any work... (which would mean I'm working waaay to hard, hehe)Next time you are at a Lowes, definitely hit up the paint swatch wall and look for these cards- the rooms shown range in styles, but all have that beautiful signature "Martha" look, and they give the paint colors used on the back. (and they're free!)
The website has some great design galleries to peruse too if you're looking for more inspiration... (or for more procrastination, hehe)
Every year I get myself a new simple spiral bound notebook. I use this to jot down ideas and for taking notes during meetings for work. This year, I picked up the one above at Urban Outfitters. I love the bright geometric colors with the etching style artwork. UO always has a great selection of notebooks and journals, (I'm not sure if this one is from last season or is new, since I can't find it on their website... but here is a link to the ones they do have online)
I know Christmas is over, but I just found this treasure of a book the other day, at a local Antique Mall for $5. It's by Brian Wildsmith and was published in 1972. It's the 12 Days of Christmas, and just has these gorgeously colorful illustrations. My holidays were pretty white and muted, and now I'm feeling bold bits of wonderful color to start the new year! I also found out there's actually a Brian Wildsmith museum in Japan!
Wow- it's a new year! I don't know about you, but 2007 seemed like it just flew by. I hope you all had a great holiday. I'm still in that post holiday limbo, which I'm trying to relish before I have to go back to the grind and start up work again. I'm very excited to see what 2008 is going to bring. I have this weird theory that it's not until the last half of a decade that you really get to see the major contributions of that decade, and that it isn't until you get towards the very end of it that they become clear and/or distinct. My theory is that the first half of the decade, you're still in transition from the last one, and by mid point, you start reactions for change, and then towards the end, the visions are more refined. I dunno- just a theory, and not necessarily true, but sounds good right? hehe-
Did you make any resolutions? Decor8 posted a fun post about resolutions and a lot of people are sharing theirs in the comments. Check it out and see if anyone else is sharing your resolutions. For me, I'm hoping to just continue my slow but committed plan to "upgrade" my life. I started it last year, and 2007 was pretty successful for me. For starters, I finally got proper window coverings (that was a BIG upgrade). Other highlights in 2007: I found myself on TV as a talking pop up head! (weird and hillarious... ) I finally got to go to ICFF (fun!), got to visit Scottsdale, AZ (interesting) and I was able to complete another phase of my parental's redo of their home.
This year, I'm hoping to upgrade my bathrooms (I have 2 1/2) and at some point, get my garage situation (and that's the only word I can think of to describe it... a serious "situation", hehe) taken care of and organized. I'm hoping to continue in the parental's redo at some point this year, perhaps tackling either the guest bedroom, or their master bedroom... I also really want to travel more this year. I have a few other things I've been thinking and I'll keep you all posted as they get closer to fruition. The image above is a close up detail of the artwork on my "money tree" platter from Jonathan Adler. Even though I enjoy a pretty mundane life, it symbolizes fortune and prosperity for me (it's good to dream right?), and that's my wish for all of you! 2008 is going to be Great! (I mean, look- it even rhymes!)
Spotted these featured in the Jan 2008 Wallpaper, this beautiful Peppermill and cheese grater from German design group, Authentics. The peppermill (called "2Hot")is designed by Jean-Marie Massaud, and the cheese grater(called "4Cheese") is a re-issue, designed by Alejandro Ruiz. There's another angle of the cheese grater on the Authentics website. I love the simplicity and modernity of these two designs. I had never been to the Authentics site before and was going into mind blowing eye-candy overdrive. I'm sure you'll recognize several of their other products, since they have soooo many great ones. I wonder if there will be any distribution of these two here in the US... (fingers crossed...)
Merry Christmas! Woo Hoo! I hope everyone is having a great Christmas. If you've been following my Ornament Adventure 2007, I promised to show the final results, so here the are!This year, I was dreaming of a muted mid-century modern Christmas. In the past, my decor has always been more of a silver, pop-y, bright and cheery flavor, but this year, something snapped changed, and I decided to go for "the gold" and switch it all up! Actually I think it all started with my branch experiment, (ie. the spray paint bandits)- So, a trip to the craft store, spray painted ornaments, yarn wrapped styrofoam, and some wood balls and I had a whole new look! Although, I must confess, I think the pieces that really made the tree are some store bought ones. I got the gold starbursts from the local floral supply store, and the mosaic garland was from Crate&Barrel. I also added those great mini-chair ornaments from West Elm I freaked out about a few months back. Oh, and the base (vase) of the tree is from West Elm too. For the rest of the decor, I spray painted my old silver topper, and placed it in a plain glass cylinder with some leftover yarn wrapped on the bottom. I had the mosaic hurricane from last year and it worked out great The carved out smaller white votive holder is from Pier 1, and the sea urchins just sorta found themselves there.For my wrapping, I used up the rest of the yarn, and just plain butcher paper and kraft paper. But Martha at Kmart also had some paper that looked great too.I just want to thank all of you for supporting Happy Mundane and checking out my mundane musings! I hope everyone has a great, warm and wonderful holiday!
What a fresh way to start the new year! (even though we still have a few days left of 2007) Love the colors on the cover of the latest Martha Stewart Living.
I'm back from the islands, and while it was fantastic to get away, I came home with a little bit of a cold that just won't go away. Nothing like getting sick right before the holidays to get me all bah-humbug-y and grinch-y. Hopefully I'll get over it sooner than later.
I hope you're all surviving the pre-holiday crazy chaos. I've seen my share of wild parking lot and road rage the past day and it's scary out there! A friend sent me this humorous video from artist Simone White. Sort of an anti-jolly Christmas song, that's a little comforting right now for a guy under the weather like me, hehe-
By the way- love the tonal blue wrapping papered boxes with the black bows! maybe that will be the color scheme for next year's tree!... hm....ideas...Anyways- i promise I'll be back with more happy cheer-y posts tomorrow, (since this is happy mundane...) take care everyone!
I've s few seen a lot of things at the beach, but I have to say, this was a first. A REAL "beach bunny"!!There was a couple that brought along their pet bunny to the beach! (along with their dog too)- Amazingly, the bunny looked quite happy...
Oy. I'm so exhausted! But I wanted to get in one more post before I head out in the morning for a much needed break. Here are two other ornaments that I made for my Ornament Adventure this year. I totally knocked off the ornaments that are in The Gap windows this year (with the yarn). Actually, while I was at the craft store, it was when I saw the ochre/sawgrass colored yarn and then the grey yarn that totally inspired the look for the tree. Anyways. I used two techniques and just wrapped the yarn over different sized styrofoam balls. The grey and taupe balls, I just wrapped randomly around and around. The ochre/sawgrass colored yarn was thicker, so I attempted a "coiled" technique. Ok. Pardon my french, but trying to do that was a ...mutha. It started out easy enough. I dabbed the top with some Tacky Glue, and started to coil around and worked my way down. But then when I got about 3/4 of the way through, it wouldn't stick anymore, and would start to unravel. It was so frustrating! I ended up just going all the way down to half way, cutting it, then flipping it over and starting from the opposite end and working my way back to the middle- then trying to meld the ends together. I'm sure there must be a better technique out there- cuz I was over it after four balls. I'm sure there are more experienced crafters out there- what's the secret?!
The other ornament was a lot simpler. I had this weird idea to use wood balls on the tree. Since you all know I love woodgrain, I thought it would look fun with the white and grey. I mean, if it looks great in a home furnishings, why not on a tree right? I simply used small eye hooks that screwed in, and used some leftover grey yarn to string them. I first used a dark stain, but didn't like it, so I switched to a lighter one that wasn't so contrast-y. Anyway- stay tuned for the final look!
I've posted what I've done for my tree at Christmas's before- I've generally always been attracted to the pop-y, bright, fun, cheer-y, happy Christmas colors- I've been slowly collecting those vintage-inspired ornaments (they're not really vintage- I got most of them on sale at Target over the past three years- so there's not really much emotional attatchment)- Anyways- this year, I just felt the need for a big change. So over the weekend, I embarked on the Ornament Adventure of Xmas 2007. And so, as I mentioned, in the midst of it all, I was attacked by the spray paint bandits! I- uh... I mean, "they" kidnapped some of the ornaments and gave them a quick coat of white metal primer. It's a nice semi-matte finish- they look almost porcelain! Here's a sneak peek at how it all turned out- I'll share the rest of the final results of my Ornament Adventure Xmas 2007 in the next few days (I just have to clean up the mess I made first!) stay tuned...
Just saw this post on AT:NY. I want all of it. Especially those wire chairs!! And I'm obsessing over the wallpaper too. (drool....) Image by Aaron over at AT (minus the graffiti... that was me, hehe)
What is this crazy mess on my table? Good question. In my last post, I mentioned how I've been having this urge to change up my Christmas tree this year. I went by Target to get some inspiration, but found myself attracted to the same things or things I liked, but knew wouldn't really get, which kind of defeated the purpose. Anyways, right near by is Michaels, so then I decided to stroll through, and then I saw some things that made it all clear- I'm going to make the ornaments. A few aisles later I had a bag full... ok, two bags full (which by the way, wasn't as cheap as I was hoping for- but whatever...) and this is what I'm working with- minus some spray paint I already had. Hang on to your seats kids. This may get ugly... we'll see what happens... are any of you making your ornaments this year?
art director/editor living in Orange County, CA (j3productions.com) Happy Mundane is a place to celebrate the ordinary and the extraordinary, happy colors, good design of any kind, and to take a moment to appreciate some things that get overlooked in the everyday. There's beauty in your dishsoap.
Woo hoo! Happy 2008! Time to get back to work and keep on movin'! I'm always excited about this time because it means all the stores are clearing through the holiday stuff and making room for all the Spring items, which means lots of new eye-candy to look at! Over the weekend, I noticed that Target is already launching the latest collections for the Global Bazaar. This year they've added two new color stories, a yellow/black/white story and a Blue+purple. When I first saw the yellow/black/white- my initial thought was- oy- haven't we seen that colorstory trend to death already? I mean, ever since Kelly Wearstler did the Viceroy Palm Springs, which was like... almost 5 years ago? it seemed like all the designers jumped on it- granted it's a great classic look and can still feel fresh if done right - and that's just what happened when I actually looked at the pieces. I found myself liking that one the most! 
Perhaps it's just taken this long for it to finally translate down to the masses... but I'm feelin' the yellow. I'm not sure if I'd do a room so paired down to only those three colors (yellow, black, white) but there are definitely some pieces in the collection I'm loving. I'm especially eyeing this Starburst mirror that's only $89! It's from the Bronze room collection. Crate&Barrel has had one for a while now that is $199- but Target is also offering this handy in-store coupon, so you could get the mirror for $79! Anyways- when I went to my local Target, they were just starting to put up the displays and fill the shelves. 
I can't wait to go back later and see it fully stocked.
The whole collection is up online though... check it out and comment here if you're seeing anything that catches your eye!
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