West Elm's Blog: Front & Main

Did you know West Elm has a blog!? I LOVE West Elm, probably as much as Anthropologie. I want to live in their catalogs. The colors, the earthy, handmade feel. They have really nailed it the last few years. Had such a great experience in Denver, and have been scouring their website lately, and came across their blog: Front & Main. What I love about it: 1) they feature real artisans, found on Etsy, and elsewhere. I love that a large corporate company is making an effort to get in touch with individual designers-- it's a great connection. 2) Your Open House- Home Run. This is genius marketing on their part, they show homes of everyday people and how they used their West Elm products. And lucky for them, their products are so outstanding that ALL the photos are actually great. I kind of expected some crap in there, but they really make it look like you can't mess it up with their pieces. Great inspiration.

Okay, so here comes the plug. As I was looking through, I about shat my pants when I saw this: 

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A Happy Habitat Eco Throw featured with a West Elm headboard! So cool to be on their blog, and I love what Sheena did with the Fretwork Throw. 
If you have photos of your Eco Throws in your house--- I'd LOVE to see them!
Send them my way at happyhabitat@att.net.

Cool Art: Mary Blair

I may be biased on this because for me this is so completely nostalgic. I recently came across these prints and am in LOVE. Mary Blair is the artist behind many Disney images and concepts, but for me most recognizable for the It's a Small World imagery. It's a Small World is one of my most favorite places ever. Right next to Parc Guell. My mom grew up just miles away from Disney Land, and as a kid, we went there at least once a year. You could see the fireworks from my grandparents house.

We went to Disney Land 2 years ago and I hadn't been in decades. Nostalgia is a strange thing, it's hard to explain. But going through the It's a Small World "ride" just made me smile and warmed my heart. I loved it as a kid-- and still love the message it sends.

I don't think these would have to go in a kids room (although I'd love to put that first blue one in Reece's room!)-- I would have these out where everyone could see them. They look so modern and fresh.

Above are all prints that can be bought as a canvas here.

More inspiring Mary Blair art:

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emily's casa part 2

When I visited Emily, our number one priority was finding fabric for her banquette. We failed, and it's been bugging me. We got a sample of this in, but what we thought was grey was actually a blue. So, we started over. We really wanted to pull some of the pretty turquoise from a few items in her kitchen, and obviously GREY, because that's our backdrop (couch, walls, etc.), but also wanted to add in some yellow (yellow and grey is a no-brainer). So no problem, right? Just find a fabric that's grey, turquoise and yellow in a material that can withstand being on a banquette where kids eat. Oh, and it should be modern, and simple. As I've been looking at my chairs that I just recovered about a month ago and noticing how they are already nasty, I am really wishing that I would have done a laminate. I'm too scared to try this, and I know that Emily REALLY wants this (but in Alabaster), but maybe we came to a compromise with this laminated fabric from Jessica Jones. 

Emily also mentioned that when she looks at the rug I picked out, all she sees is 'hearts'. I didn't see it at first, but now I totally do, and all I can think of is 'karrie's kountry kwilts'. So here's some new rug options with the new LAMINATED fabric options. 

The fabrics come laminated and not laminated. So she could do the banquette laminated but throw on some coordinating pillows in the regular fabric. Although in my house the pillows would need to be laminated they way my kids eat! 

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food for the soul

I was so lucky to visit my beautiful friend Emily last week in Denver. She had me come to help her make some design decisions for her house. She knows what she likes, but needed help putting it together. I think we made some serious progress in 3 days.

We struck out on our mission the first day to find fabric for her banquet that was going to be inspiration for a few other things, so by the end of the day with a case of serious design blue balls (as Emily so appropriately called it), we overdid it at IKEA and broke the golden rule of buying too much at one spot (Target, Crate and Barrel, IKEA, Pottery Barn-- doesn't matter, just limit it). We came home and Emily was not happy.

So we bagged the IKEA pillows, and went out the next day where we scored seriously at West Elm. We had the BEST help from David-- and we could have stayed in that store all day long.

Anyway, I think I'll have to head back for the next stage, but it was the best 3 days: shopping, designing, and most of all just getting to hang out with Emily and her sweet family.

Here's a few random pieces that were inspiration and purchases. The flame stitch is a possible option for her banquet, but she also has her eye on a grey and yellow one. I liked that this pulled the turquoise/aqua that she already had in a few ceramic pieces in the adjacent kitchen. The hexagon marble side table from West Elm is to-die-for-- also looks cool when you put 3 together. Pillow is West Elm too. She was originally thinking this grey chevron rug, but I just found this and like that it's got soft lines, but still feels simple and modern. (Emily-- what do you think?) She has lots of original art work and some killer furniture that was her husband's all the way from Egypt-- looks very Moroccan. I think when those sentimental pieces are mixed with her new stuff it will be a gorgeous combination.

Oh, and I have to share... you know how I'm always on the hunt for something good for the front door, but am never really satisfied with the options? I love her solution:

OH-- and also-- almost forgot about one of my IKEA scores: 

Remember my pool bag and great find of these artists, Inaluxe? Scored these for $6 for BOTH. And have you heard that IKEA is coming to Kansas City-- and just a few miles from me. Whohoooo!

cool, modern quilts

I love the idea of quilts... using leftover scraps to make something beautiful. Putting puzzle pieces together to create shapes and designs. And love the feeling of a quilt, all padded and stitched together, and only gets better and softer with each wash. I'm not a huge fan though of old fashioned style quilts. I do have some that my grandmother made that have meaning and are special, but in general, they are a little too, well, 'grandma-ish' for my taste. I'm getting ready to make bedding for Reece's room, and want it to have that cozy feeling. I'm not so good at quilting, the last attempt ended up being a rhombus shape instead of a rectangle. So I think I'm going to quilt the fabric, maybe even kantha stitch it (if I can do it without screwing up!), but just use regular fabric-- my way of cheating. 

Loving these modern quilts:

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DYING over this. Perfection.

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I'm seeing lots of triangles and hexagons here, and Reece chose a triangle pattern for one side of his bedding:

The flip side or front will be hexagon (his choice):

I need to figure out how to stitch a cool pattern on there. Or maybe do a running kantha style stitch so that you can actually see it. That could take forever though. I'll probably take the easy way out and use the machine. I'm really excited about how well the blue matched up to the color that will be on his wall-- the Newburg Green (it's really blue, not sure why they call it green!). And the turquoise was perfectly matched to some furniture he already has painted that color. I like the idea of custom bedding-- it's been fun to put together, can't wait to see it finished!

Oh-- and I guess I do have a grandma quilt that I LOVE.  It's actually a 'great aunt' quilt. I inherited this from my sweet great aunt Fran. It was actually a skirt, that was already pieced together. I took it apart, and put a back on it, then just put the little thread knots in at the corners to hold the batting and backside together, then stitched it up. Yes-- total cheat, but isn't it great? Each one of these fabrics is fantastic, and I love that it has sentimental value, and got passed down 3 generations.