September 2013 - Design Crush

September 30, 2013

Insta September

We’ve been doing some updates, here Peanut the cat gives his approval on a new armchair in the living room. I hung this sweet porcelain horseshoe over my front door for luck. Bebe was awful scruffy (how I like her!) before getting her semi-annual fur cropping. Oklahoma has some of the best sunset I’ve ever seen and brought out her best for the month. I visited Plenty Mercantile for the first time (I’ll be going back. Often.) and picked a few giant sticks of colorful taffy to ogle. Last month I commissioned this beautiful MCM-inspired coffee table and it was delivered last week. We updated the front door with some vinyl house numbers for a fun, graphic look. S’mores candy corn exists. For the record it’s good, but not heavily s’mores-y.

Posted In my life

September 30, 2013

Gulten Imamoglu

I have an enormous new artist crush, and the object of my affections is Turkish painter Gulten Imamoglu. At first look I thought her colorful and dynamic paintings were actually floating ink experiments, the fluidity just seemed too good. Gulten talks of life and death, natural disasters, infinity and dreams as to what she’s creating within her art. What I see is a place where I could easily escape the daily realities of life.

Posted In create, painting

September 27, 2013

Happy Weekend

01/ 100,000 miniature porcelain skulls. (I’m so ready for October!)
02/ Hilarious photos of people FREAKING OUT at a haunted house.
03/ Photos of Monopoly properties in real life.
04/ Loveman explores the lengths men will go to for love.
05/ Life-size fluorescent feather-covered polar bears!
06/ The Fallen 9000 commemorated D-Day on the beaches of Normandy with sand etchings.
07/ Glowing silhouettes of people in Chicago.
08/ Twenty-four giant florescent snails have invaded Sydney for Snailovation.
09/ A giant sunbathing hair in Russia.
10/ Forever Brooklyn, a frenetic trip through the borough’s neighborhoods.

This week on Design Crush:
Make My Crap Your Crap MEGA Garage Sale (OKC)
Stone & Violet
Commissioned
Le Vero
Emmanuelle Walker
Shanna Murray For West Elm
Amy Wilson
Ten Coffee Table Books
Esther Lobo

Posted In collaboration/project, create, happy weekend, installation, photography, sculpture

September 27, 2013

Esther Lobo

Esther Lobo, aka FahLoSue, creates art inspired by ink blot Rorschach tests. But instead of ink, Lobo relies on different foods for her Rorschach project. She creates each piece by smearing yogurt, ice cream, peanut butter, and other malleable foods onto plastic plates, then folds each one in half. Using no post-production on her photos, Lobo creates these symmetrical images and leaves the rest to our psyches.

Posted In create, mixed media

September 26, 2013

Ten Coffee Table Books

To me the phrase coffee table books is a big mosnomer. My definition is something along the lines of: unique books that are begging to be shared in any and all capacities, that are pleasing to the eye, and that don’t require hours of reading. In my home that means that yes, they are on the coffee table. But they are also on the bar cart, in the guest room, and on the mantel. Anywhere that warrants something extra special. To me it’s a fine curatorial line that needs to include art and writings, fact and fiction, food and conversation. Here are my ten most reliable favorites.

Charley Harper: An Illustrated Life // The Hand Written Letter Project // And Fork: 100 Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Good Designs // The Century // Edible Selby // The Where, the Why, and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science // Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities // Well-Read Women: Portraits of Fiction’s Most Beloved Heroines // Woodcut // Andy Warhol 365 Takes: The Andy Warhol Museum Collection

Posted In read up, round up

September 26, 2013

Amy Wilson

Fine I admit it, I’m already thinking about the holidays. It’s so hard not to in an industry that moves months ahead of reality! But don’t worry, I’m no further than Thanksgiving in my mind and I’m blaming it all on these delicious photos from prop stylist/set designer Amy Wilson.

(You’re thinking about it too now, am I right??)

PHOTOS: Amy Wilson

Posted In entertaining

September 25, 2013

Shanna Murray for West Elm

Shanna Murray is such a talented illustrator, and this fall she’s teamed up with West Elm to create a heartfelt collection that celebrates friends and family through her well-known handwritten phrases. Choose from salad plates, a platter, coasters, a pie dish, and a tea towel featuring her signature script. Perfect for the upcoming holidays.

Posted In create, entertaining, house and home, illustration, kitchen

September 25, 2013

Emmanuelle Walker

Illustrator Emmanuelle Walker‘s style is flat and awesome in 2D. Walker creates incredible angles and perspective, lending just enough quirk and personality. My favorite series is (of course) Dogs and Cars with its colorful cars and happy pooches hanging out of windows, tongues flapping!

Posted In create, illustration

September 24, 2013

Le Vero

Loving the look of Le Vero‘s elegantly designed line of personalized business and travel accessories. Anything that helps organize my life even the slightest bit better and I’m all in, and that’s just what Le Vero aims to do. Their four piece collection (computer bag, business card case, wallet, and passport cover) is available in three rich colors – navy, rose, and canary yellow – and each piece is personalized using a restored Royal typewriter. I was lucky enough to receive a navy business card holder and love the simple, clean design. The most thought out touch being two internal pockets, one for your cards and another for others. Support Le Vero’s Kickstarter campaign and see what all the fuss is about!

Posted In bags, wear it

September 24, 2013

Commissioned

Have you ever commissioned a portrait of yourself, your family, or even as a gift for someone else? I can’t say that I have, but it’s something I’ve been thinking of more and more lately. It seems like every way I turn there’s an incredible illustrator or painter showing me yet another reason why I need one of me and my crazy pet menagerie. Here are just three that I’ve got my eye on, top to bottom they are My Little Buffalo, Jolly Edition, and Lili di Prima.

Posted In create, illustration, painting