The RAA, oh how I love them.

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Drain The Blood from Saddle Creek on Vimeo.

-XO

How is a raven like a writing desk?

One of the things I've always loved having is a small desk on which to write and draw silly things in my life.

I used to have a fold out top desk that was my grandmother's. She passed away when I was only seven so I had it all the way up to high school when I stopped even attempting to do homework and it became a spot that just collected the random junk that seemed to endlessly flow into my bedroom.

In any case, I haven't had a nice writing desk since then (now that I actually enjoy writing again, of course) and I saw this one today from Rothlisberg Kollektion, and now I'm really wishing I had something like this desk.

The answer, by the way, is: Both are complemented by blackened quills.

-XO

Martha Stewart Knows Fall Pastries

Honey Tea Lace Cookies and Iced Oatmeal-Applesauce Cookies

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and Giant Ginger Cookies

Pumpkin-Swirl Brownies and Chocolate-Ginger Cookies....

OMG.... I'm salivating just posting these pictures! Thank you, Martha! You always make Halloween tastier.

-XO

Feeling Halloween

One thing that I love about autumn is Halloween. It is my most cherished holiday of the year. And I love when fashion embraces that spooky side of things.

Alix over at TheCherryBlossomGirl.com never fails to give us bewitching style every year.

Fall Colors in Fashion

More lovely styles from the people photographed on Au coin de ma rue.

-XO

More Yellow Couch Love.

I hate to say it but I definitely am biased towards any room that has a yellow vibe. I found this over on the seventy tree and I've left it up on my browser for the last few days. It's really an inspirational design photo that I'm keeping in mind for how I'm going to be decorating my new place in the near future!

-XO

Who Says Mathematicians Don't Have a Sense of Style?

I have always believed that science and design go hand-in-hand. We get much of our design aspects from nature - usually the oddities tend to make things seem less organic, but they still exist naturally. Not to mention the fact that most of what we design wouldn't be possible if it weren't for the engineers behind the machinery and technology that we use to create art.



That said, I would love to have this Raimond Suspension lamp designed by a mathematician for Moooi that I found at Dwell. The electrical current that lights the LEDs transmits through the frame itself where each light connects to another piece of the the stainless steel frame. Don't you feel smarter already? I definitely do.

-XO

Flying Bug-Eyed Cat-Thingies

Ronnie del Carmen prints at Gallery Nucleus. Cute girl and flying cat-thingy; what more could you ask for?

-XO

Little Plaid Riding Hood

I don't think I ever wanted a hooded cape until I saw this today from Steven Alan.

-XO

Benched for the Season.

Moving into a new apartment for me is exciting, liberating, and kinda a little bit intimidating. I haven't moved in seven years and for the first time ever I really have a chance to decorate a living space the way I want to decorate it (as long as the boyfriend likes it too of course - we're so lucky we have the same tastes!).

There is an entryway to our apartment that will be perfect for coats and shoes and boots and umbrellas. I want to put a bench underneath a wall-hanging coat rack. The problem is, I've never really looked into benches before and it seems they are a whole lot more expensive than I could have anticipated. In any case, I may just end up building my own (thank you electric drill!) but I ran across a few that seemed like a design I would like to follow. This was one I liked a lot from MASH Studios that was on the medium expensive side (I saw ones up to $4,000... it's just a bench for chrissake!).

In any case, making one doesn't seem so difficult, after all, it's just a top and two wide legs right?

-XO

Autumn. Love. Coats.

Some looks I'm really excited for this fall.

And of course, not to forget something stylish I've been eying for the boys.

First look from Humanoid. Second from Golestaneh on Lookbook.nu. Third from Gabriel W. on Lookbook.nu.

-XO

Design to a Tea

Tea Kettle from the fantastic design shop Mjolk.

-XO

ps! - I have to add that this tea towel is super 60's awesomesauce and I might have a lot of trouble not purchasing it...

Discovery of New Art

I love finding new, amazing artists (even if I'm just totally behind in the game of knowing their work). Uwe Heidschoetter is an amazing, astounding, awesome artist from Germany. He has a new book out which I plan on purchasing very soon from the wonderful art book website Stuart Ng books.

Anyways, I found this piece to be especially home-hitting because, ever since 6th grade (and until two years ago) I've had pet rats. Yes, as pets, and no, not from the wild. They're the sweetest little creatures you can imagine, and they like burrowing unto hooded sweatshirt pockets and curling up on your shoulder.

The title of the piece was "Girls and Rats", apparently for an animated short idea. Which would be fantastic, because my friend Tamara, had rats also, and we would take our pets over to each other's house to play together, and they always had the best time in the little cardboard houses we made for them; i.e. drew furniture on the insides and cut holes and doors for them to escape in and out.

Too cute, and so nostalgic. It's nice to see someone not trying to follow stereotypes in their art!

-XO