Photographer Louise Rastall

Beautiful, textural imagery from photographer Louise Rastall. Photographers and stylists have become a big resource for bloggers. It's hard to resist all their gorgeous work. I think you can really get to know a blogger by the imagery they post.

Window Shopping | Wisteria

I was just checking out Wisteria to see what's new. I like their catalog - they feature furniture and accessories that are a lot less mainstream than some of the other mail order stores. If you furnished your home completely with Wisteria products it would look very eclectic and filled with personality like it had been a labour of love for decades.

Inspiration | ephemera

Amongst all the collected ephemera around here we have boxes and boxes of old match box labels that I have bought at flea markets and on Ebay. I love them. They evoke an era and a place. They also represent an examples of a really crude, but very interesting printing style which is one of the reasons that I really like them. I especially love the ones printed in India like the following(and the angry tiger over on the left!).

Etsy | Little Black Rabbit

Check out these pretty little things from Little Black Rabbit's Etsy shop. Very clever repurposing of vintage jewelry. I think these are wonderful and really well priced starting at $27.

Inspiration | edgy folk art

If I was a skateboarder - although this is becoming more and more unlikely - this would be my skateboard of choice.Via Kika Reichert.

Eye Candy - oh no!

I don't usually post eye candy for the sake of being nothing more than eye candy but I am going to break that rule today because this home is just so excruciatingly gorgeous I want you all to see it. I would like to move into this house tomorrow - no, how about right after lunch today. I won't be here tomorrow because I will be settling into my new digs . . . . 

Inspiration | Tord Boontje

I am so inspired by Dutch designer Tord Boontje's work. These images are from a collaboration with designer Alexander McQueen. pieces were created by Boontje for McQueens store in London. Over the last couple of years I have collected lots of images of his work, I'll show you some more soon if you like.

Books

So we are all about books today. Let's start with a couple of cool ways to store and display books. I am completely in love with the big bookcase from Sundance(with the red back board). Can you see the small brass name plates on the cubby holes? And I love how huge it is! Next is the rolling book shelf from Wisteria - this fits right in with our industrial-chic fetish from a couple of weeks ago doesn't it? And the bottom shelves(look closely - those are book shelves) are from Graham and Green - very unusual and would be so fun to create perfect little vignettes inside each frame.

Above image from Paris Parfait

Books as photo props.

Here's a great idea. Those of us who have to take product shots for our web sites etc are always looking for props to make our pictures look better. I saw these wooden animals on Etsy and they are so sweet but it was the piles of books that they are standing on that caught my eye - this is such a good idea. It would be fun to search flea markets and rummage sales for old books to use in product shots.

Ilustrator Mark Ryden - The Tree Show

Here's something that caught my eye the other day. Illustrator Mark Ryden has a new book out that showcases the work that he did for his show titled The Tree Show at the Michael Kohn Gallery in LA in 2007. I really enjoyed seeing the inspiration behind the pieces - lots of vintage references.

As a side note, I am a big fan of vintage Popular Science Magazine and we have MANY volumes around here from the 1940s and on. They have some very cool crafty projects and really fantastic illustrations and diagrams - I was not surprised at all when I saw this one referenced in Mark's book.

Repurposed book covers.

Clever use of a vintage book cover - though I only approve of this if the book is in a worthless state of disrepair. Available here - lots to choose from.

Botanical Prints

We are taking a look at botanical prints today - everything from framed and hanging on your wall to pin-backed and hanging on your lapel. I have a soft spot for botanical prints because I collect paper ephemera and some of easiest ephemera to find comes from early botanical books. I love seeing samples of it used for fashion and decor - it always looks great when applied to fabric and even leather  - I found a very odd web site that will apply vintage botanical prints to leather cushions but their images were just not up to snuff for the cafe this morning. So off we go for a botanical tour . . .

This outrageous botanical sofa is from Anthropologie - very impressive(this is my favourite style of sofa - tight back,  rolled arms, turned legs) It almost looks like the fabric is crewel embroidered - that would too good to be true.

Botanical posters

I know I featured these botanical posters before but, at that time, I noticed that they were not easy to find online - I couldn't find a vendor for these anywhere. Well these, and many others, are now available here along with a lot of other strange, but kinda interesting stuff. These are not reproductions they are still currently being produced by the same people in Germany who have been producing them since the 1950's. They are very good quality - mounted on canvas backing and have wooden dowles at either end. I think that most of them have black backgrounds because they were hung over the chalk boards at schools and rolled down for science class (we had these at our school, I think they had been there for years because they were a bit ratty.) These are very cool and would look great decorating kids rooms, sun porches, kitchens maybe. They are available at Evolution(in Soho NY) which is a strange little curiosity shop stuffed to the gills with weird but interesting "specimens". The last time I posted these I had no response at all from readers. Am I the only person that thinks these are way cool (do you think they are slightly creepy?  - you can tell me!)