Tea Towel & Mug Time

I got this set of mugs at a thrift store for L&G Shop recently, and realized that they look very similar to one of the mugs on Skinny La Minx's tea towel print!! It's the ear handled mug with lantern looking shapes. All the mugs on the towel are from her beautiful mug collection.
I'm a huge fan of her work and have the mug towel in gooseberry. I just love how Heather Moore uses all the various forms and graphics of the mugs to create such a striking overall print.On a side note, recently Heather has been experimenting with incorporating her beautiful designs on dinner plates and I can't wait 'til she starts selling them. I know people are going to go nuts over them...I know I will!! In fact, I'm already going nuts just looking at all the ones she's made...she's just too darn good!!

My New Found Love...with an Eggcup

I never realized what was missing in my life....til just couple days ago I got to experience eating a soft-boiled egg out of an egg cup for the first time. Not joke! I was a egg cup virgin for 26 years...and I must say, my life didn't feel complete until now.
I found a set of these white chicken egg cups with white ceramic spoons at a thrift store, and I just had to get them for the sake of trying it! This was a cultural experience for me. I even turned to Martha for some expert advice on how to boil an egg and eat out of the eggcup to insure that my eggcup eating experience turns out perfect.
And it was PERFECT! It totally made my day...even my week!!I love the ritual of eating out the egg shell with the little tiny ceramic spoon. It's as if I'm a kid eating ice cream or gelato with tiny plastic spoons....I savored every bite. It's also like eating a poached egg without all the mess and hassle! But mostly, I think it's just so brilliant how the egg shell becomes a eating vessel in itself. There's just so many great things about it that I can't stop talking or thinking about it!
And after consuming such a satisfying meal......it really makes me appreciate all the simple small things in life....this is what love taste like...in an egg cup.

L&G On a Blog Roll!

So check it! L&G got on the READYMADE blog!! ...I didn't even know they had a blog! Totally awesome! Once again, Jan from Poppytalk who's always in the know (I'm obviously not...), mentioned that readymade wrote L&G up! Woo Hoo! I really gotta say, if it wasn't for Jan and her great blog I wouldn't even be here blogging about being blogged! Big blog hug to Jan! \(^-^)/
Best of all, readymade used the grid and the hangers as an "idea worthy"example for the next MacGyver Challenge: Clothes Hangers , the challenge is due on July 21! Sounds totally fun....I should come up with something for that! Hangers do just take up space and they're usually not that appealing....especially the plastic ones. eck! But they do coming handy when you want to get spiderwebs off the ceiling corners.....or something....hmmm. Something tells me that readymade won't really like that idea....I suppose I should go back to the drawing board. (FYI, I don't really have a drawing board...that would be silly!)

Random connection to Apartment Therapy

Dylan told me about this random connection mentioning that the founder of Apartment Therapy, Maxwell and Sara Kate actually got a Henrybulit Kitchen (which is where Dylan works) in their tiny 265 sqft apartment....yeah...you heard me...It's an APARTMENT in NY! Unbelievable!! But their space seems to be really well planned out. You can see the whole living arrangement here. As tiny as the space seems, they managed to keep it minimal and not super cluttered. I TOTALLY admire people who can live minimally. Because god knows that I'm a total junk collector/pack rat. I just can't imagine living in a space that size even by myself, let alone as two adults PLUS a 6 months old baby!! Now that's living like a real New Yorker!

Cut it out!

Chika showed me these neat laser cut letter scarves by Little Factory based in Hong Kong. I'm no font geek by any means, (meaning I'm not an expert in recognizing or memorizing font names...I wish though) but I definitely LOVE when fonts are used to create graphic patterns or compositions. I'm also a scarf freak, so the fact that they managed to combined both of those things together, makes them a GENIUS in my book!
Which I'm totally planning on publishing a book exactly that...."Jean's List of Genius things" Here's what I have so far on the list....digital watch, frozen yogurt, rice cooker, cellphone with calculator function, Guitar Hero( Duck Hunt would come before that of course), Willy Wonka's 3 course meal gum...oh yeah and hover boards. It's a good start, right? :)

Our livingroom on Apartment Therapy Blog!!

So it has been a super exciting week for L&G, because not only did Jan from the Poppytalk Blog write a nice entry about our living room display, but Apartment Therapy (Chicago) also used it as an example for a display idea! I was floored when Jan passed that information to me! Thanks Jan!

There's been several comments and inquiries about the couch and here's a little info about it! The couch is a Knoll couch with a parallel bar base that Dylan scored on Craig's List (for a mere $125...they didn't know what they had!). It was originally a couch in the Seattle Public Library and was covered in hideous brown naugahide.....eew, I know. We had to get it reupholstered and chose a Knoll fabric called Alignment in blood orange. We were able to get for cheap on Ebay for only $9.00/yd. I love Ebay.....and Craig's list.
Those curious about the display grid: The grid is easy to construct with standard 2 x 2's from a local lumber store (they're actually 1.5" x 1.5"). We chose cedar because we liked the color and consistency. So here are the steps...pretty simple, but the main thing is that there aren't any visible fasteners.

• Lay out the grid's verticals according to wall stud locations maintaining asymmetric spacing. The horizontal elements are arranged according to the desired height of shelves and prints.
  
• Set the grid up on the floor and screw it together from the back.
  
• To attach to the wall, we cut 4 short blocks of 2x2 down to about 1 1/2". Screwed each of these to the wall at a stud from the end to align with the grid.
  
• Use L-brackets to attach the grid to the blocks...because of the height of these, the brackets are hidden from view.
• Shallow shelves (up to 8" deep) can be cut to the width of each bay and screwed down from the top with nice looking screws (screwing down is much stronger than upwards from the bottom).
• Decorate & Enjoy!
  

The Wonder of Pant Hangers

I came across Poppytalk's blog entry about using pant hangers to hang prints and how it was in the summer issue of O at Home Magazine! I thought it was kinda funny since I started using pant hangers years ago just as a budget solution to hang my collection of prints. Little did I know that even Oprah thinks it's a good idea!! I feel so special...I mean, it's OOOH-PRAH we're talking about!
The way they photographed the hangers with charming old photographs was definitely more sophisticated looking than my jumbled arrangement. I love pant hangers myself and think that they are elegant, well-designed utilitarian objects. I have a whole collection of vintage hangers in all different sizes, materials and forms.
But I was super psyched to also see that Jan from Poppytalk blog wrote a nice entry about my display!! So awesome!! Thanks Jan!!
Dylan and I built this grid on a project day because our landlord is strict about what we do to the old 1905 lathe&plaster walls in our apartment. So we came up with this simple grid for us to change things up easily.

Lovely Nani Iro textile

If I have to pick one textile company I love, it would be be Nani Iro based in Osaka, Japan. Their 2008 line designed by Naomi Ito is absolutely amazing and to die for!! I mean just look at the space! This would be my version of heaven....sigh.
The line is a mix of soft hand painted watercolor-like patterns with bright bold color combinations creating a perfect result of playful and simple sophistication . They really have a knack for creating things that express a certain level of human quality, subtlety, imperfection, and beauty...But all so well-balanced of course. They're just TOO good!

Even their poka dot and line design show some slight imperfections, as if they're drawn individually making them all that much more interesting and beautiful.
Above all the greatness of their textile designs, they have examples of products, such as bags, baby bibs, baby slippers, apron, dresses, accessories, and so on. All are which created using Nani Iro fabric by everyday crafters around Japan. All the things comes with full instructions (in Japanese). This goes to show that Nani Iro fabric looks great no matter what you make with it!

I love their little company moto, which really sums up everything about what Nani Iro is about. "Kokorokara Kokorohe Tsunagatteiku Nunotachi" which means "from the heart, to the heart, tied together with cloth". Simple words, but it sure leave you feeling warm and fuzzy all over, doesn't it?

Paintings by Leah Giberson

I'm on a beach kick since summer is approaching...slowly in Seattle. It's coming nonetheless. But I found these series of paintings by Leah Giberson. She sells prints of the original paintings on her Etsy shop!
The subject that Leah choose to paint brings a new perspective to some of the most mundane buildings and landscapes that we've all seen and have passed by without ever noticing. With nothing else around except the standing building alone in the painting, it's as if you've entered a deserted ghost town, feeling eerie yet peaceful at the same time. It reminds me much of the small tiny towns we often drive by leaving me wondering about the people that lives there and the kind of life they live.

Beach Treasures

Dylan and I went to the coast in the Olympic Peninsula couple weekend ago to go camping for one night and we got to see beautiful Rialto Beach. The beach itself is a scenic shore by the Pacific Ocean with mostly rocks that's been washed away to form perfect rounded stones of all sizes (which feels great to walk on). On top of that there are an abundance of large dramatic looking driftwoods and sea plants all over the beach that kept us busy as we searched for tons of great sea treasures. A lot of the sea plants looked almost jewelery-like. Their natural forms, colors, and textures were so inspiring and fascinating to see all together, some of which I've never even seem before! The one hanging on the drift wood would make a great necklace just as is! I also love the texture of the delicate and feathery strands of the one below. I have no idea what any of it are, but was truly amazed by the variety of sea plants we were able to find. I love to go back again to collect some more and also lug some drift woods and rocks!