After months of wanting to wear as little as possible in the way of loungewear the tides are turning. Socks are starting to be worn once again, maybe even the occasional sweater. Crazy. The next thing you know you’ll be reaching for your robe before your morning coffee and your evening tea. Check out these thirteen that are long, short, heavy, light, and everything in between.
Part Sleeping Beauty and part serial killer, Núria Farré‘s deep and dark paintings of women submerged in water are both beautiful and unsettling at once. It’s all part of the Barcelona born and based artist’s attempt to combine the inner and outer worlds of each individual. (Pssst… occasionally you can find a piece or two of hers available for sale in her Etsy shop.)
Halloween was always played up as the best holiday at my house as a kid, which is probably why it remains my favorite to this day. I love the childhood innocence involved, as well as the more macabre side you learn about a few years later. My house is all decorated – maybe you’ve already seen it on social media – and I’ll be sharing more about that tomorrow. But for now here are four dozen All Hallows’ Eve treats I think you’ll love!
John Holcomb is a self-taught artist painting with Benjamin Moore’s Aura line and combining it with oil pastel linework. I love the combination of large fields of flat painted color paired with delicately drawn lines. Holcomb’s creations often feel like a distant relative of hotel room clown paintings, particularly the treatment of colors in each face. (I mean this as a great compliment.)
Do you ever get an overwhelming feeling to toss everything and start over? My last big clean out was two years ago during my last move, and over the past few months I’ve had a visceral feeling that it was time to go through everything again.
I’m currently over halfway through the Marie Kondo-ing of my things – the kitchen, living room, guest room, bathrooms, and master bedroom have been sorted. About half of the castoffs have been given away and the rest are sitting in my finished attic waiting to be sold or donated.
But the room I was dreading was my office.
As a blogger I work out of a home office, and it often ends up as the room where submissions, samples, and products for projects get tossed. In other words: the Dump Room. Just walking into it made my anxiety jump a few levels, which definitely isn’t conducive to productivity.
We’ve written about Poppin before, and you might’ve seen them yourself in some big box stores. The New York-based brand is a leading manufacturer of workplace furniture, as well as those brightly colored supplies you’ve likely seen, supported by the belief that everyone deserves to work happy. (That’s something we can all get behind, isn’t it?) Their well-designed, clean-lined pieces were a perfect match for my office, and I chose two white Stow 3-Drawer File Cabinets to tackle my biggest issues: organizing and decluttering.
These powder-coated steel beauties showed up completely assembled and ready to rock – all of Poppin‘s furniture is always in stock and ready to ship asap – and I got right to work storing office supplies in one and craft and tech in the other. A bonus: one lock protects all three drawers! I chose white to match my desk, but the Stow Cabinets also come in a bevy of other colors.
Everything else went into boxes on these shelves – notecards, notebooks, washi tape, etc are all hidden away nice and neat. The only things left out are the ones I need access to often, like pens, markers, and greeting cards.
Tip 1: If you forgot you owned it – toss it.
I came across plenty of things that I either never remembered purchasing or thought I’d thrown out long ago. You’ll never have an easier decision.
Tip 2: If you don’t use it on a weekly basis – store it.
There are lots of items you own that are only get used occasionally. Tuck those things away in drawers, closets, or pretty boxes that are preferably labeled.
Tip 3: Don’t keep duplicates.
Extra supplies (Sharpies, tape, etc) excluded, you usually don’t need more than one. Get a new printer/camera/coffee maker? Get rid of the old one right away.
Tip 4: Donate it.
Guilt played a huge role in my entire decluttering process. My mom gave me this. I remember what I was doing that one time I wore this. I could maybe use this again if… Pass on your wealth by donating these loved but unneeded items.
Tip 5: If it’s broken, throw it away.
You’re not going to fix it. In fact, if it’s that important of an item you’ve probably already replaced it. To the trash can you go, end of story.
This post sponsored by Poppin. As always, all words and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that help keep Design Crush creating fresh content!
Britt Hutchinson‘s embroidery is full of darkness. Skeletons, nooses, and undertones of love fill tinycup needleworks‘ Instagram page, which is exactly how this artist got her start. Hutchinson says the skeleton subject matter began by being based on stitches she was learning during Chicago’s polar vortex in 2013. After “stitching and posting, stitching and posting” to Instagram that winter her business took off.
October has me reaching for hot tea, blankets, and candles! As soon as it’s in the 60s I’m ready to settle in and get cozy, nesting at its finest my friends. I like to keep a small stash of scented candles on the shelf in my coat closet and bring them out one by one all fall and winter long. Not only do they make great last minute hostess gifts come the holidays, they also keep my cold weather wear smelling lovely.
Brian Donnelly‘s paintings melt my face off. Wait, no but yes. The Toronto-based artist’s “melting” portraits are half perfectly coiffed, half perfectly defaced. The destroyed appearance is achieved through the use of hand sanitizer and turpentine, which has me curious as to what they look like before the chemicals are applied. How close to completion is each face?
These beautiful floor rugs by Atelier Février cost more than my first car (a 1987 VW Cabriolet convertible for those of you wondering), but goodness they’re a treat for the eyes. This is the kind of rug that people hang on the wall rather than lay underfoot. Each design features a modern look that’s been created with traditional craftsmanship.
The year 2016 feels a bit upside-down, so maybe that’s one reason Shang Chengxiang‘s photorealistic paintings resonate so deeply. Each piece digs into the human mind, inspired by dreams and observations Chengxiang has made in the world. A theme that appears in several paintings is smoke, which the artist uses to compare to the disappearing quality of dreams.
