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.

Newburg Green! (but really blue, greyish blue)

The boy said he wanted his room to be blue and turquoise (turquoise being his favorite color), so I thought navy and turquoise would be a good combination. Adding grey in as I scored a great rug and thought it would be a good neutral with the turquoise and navy. I don't love that classic navy blue so much, and knew it would end up looking too bright and generic in his room, so I wanted something a little off. My friend Amy painted a room in her house a gorgeous grayish blue, with a tint of green. Not so much green, but it's on the greener side as opposed to the reddish or royalish side. It's also a tad bit lighter than a deep, navy. Its called Newburg Green from the West Elm Benjamin Moore collection. Odd that it's called green as it is definitely more blue than green. In some photos it looks almost deep teal, in others blue. At Amy's house, it's definitely blue, but changes depending on the shadows and time of day. Gorgeous, isn't it?

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Here it is up on the wall-- looks really blue here. I think it's going to be very cocoon-y!

iPhone 5 cases are in the HOUSE!

We've got you covered if you are one of those lucky ones to get a new iPhone 5! Choose your colors, pattern and initial or monogram for your iPhone 5 (or 4 or 3 or iPod touch).  Don't like what you see? Talk to me--- I'll see if I can customize something for you!

Here's some new ones that just went out:

Love the brown and orange for fall! And the custom ombre chevron in blues turned out pretty cool! 

Get 'em in the shop.

Cool Office Supplies/Desk Accessories

I've been on the hunt for some cool offices supplies. For my 7 year old. Have I lost it? Maybe a little. He's a typical 7 year old-- totally messy, not organized. I've been telling him for 4 years now to hang his backpack on the hook, where to put his school papers, etc. He still doesn't get it. So as a mom of a boy, I feel it's my job to set my son up to be an organized, neat and clean man. Now that he has homework, I'm thinking school work will be easier if he knows where he put it, less stressful running around trying to find things last minute. And someday his wife will thank me. So with the great room re-do coming up, I thought I'd pull in a desk that we already have, and thought I should include some cool office supplies for his desk. Besides-- for some reason he's always stealing my tape. As for the stapler-- is it dangerous to give a 7 year old a stapler?

For the boys room (okay, maybe not the gold pencils). 

Sources: Cool File Folder: Mudpuppy, Modern Tape Dispenser and Stapler: Poppin, Waves File Folder: PaperSource , Greek Key Pencils: Iomoi, Ikat Chevron Magnet Clips: See Jane Work. 

So moving on to my office, I really love this: 

From Iomoi

And go with some beautiful brass accessories. But for $158 for just a tape dispenser, that's not going to happen. So I like the yellow version since my office is working on being grey and yellow.

Mama's Office

Sources: Patterned Pencils: Ioimoi, Yellow Tape Dispenser and Stapler: Poppin, Ikat Magnet Clips: See Jane Work, Flowers File Folders: Galison.

This round up wouldn't be complete without this honorable mention: 

These seemed to appropriately go together. The "Butt Station": Amazon, Crap Files: PaperSource