Conceptual artist: Leandro Erlich

Thanks to Booooom for introducing me to conceptual artist Leandro Erlich.  For people interested in interior spaces, I think you’ll find his work very cool (and worth the click-thru).

Window & Ladder

House Carousel

Vintage-inspired Chenille Bedspreads

Did your Grandma have an amazing (and very colorful) Chenille bedspread in her house, just like mine?  Over the years, I’ve kept my eye out for one of these at vintage shops, flea markets, and occasionally ebay but never seemed to find any that were in decent shape, didn’t smell like moth balls or were large enough for a modern bed.  Well, if you’re like me and you’ve been searching for a 50′s chenille bedspread, then look no further because I’ve found new ones in the most unlikely place — Vermont Country Store.  (Who knew?!)  The pink/yellow sunburst at the top is my favorite.

They’re actually pretty affordable too!  They range from $59.99 up to $199 (depending on the size and detail).  I’m just surprised that they offer king size!  One of these would look so amazing in a vintage-inspired bedroom, cottage-chic guest room, or [dare-I-say] little girl’s room.  (I am of the opinion that this would be fun variant for my master bedroom, but recognize that not everyone feels the same as I do about pastels….and therefore begrudgingly admit they’d be good for the youngsters too.)

Anyways…happy shopping!  I’m so excited that I found these!!  (Oh, and p.s. they have solid colors too…like all white!)

Kids stuff so adorable that it will make your womb hurt…

I don’t normally post on children’s stuff, so this is a little off-topic.  However lately the cutest kids items have been popping up onto my screen, and I couldn’t help but point them out to those of you that kids of your own!  These kids gifts really tugged at my heartstrings.  I absolutely must figure out who is getting The Tickle Monster Kit…. (Hmmm?)

The Tickle Monster Kit by Josie Bissett.

The kit comes complete with Tickle Monster Hands!!!

More ridiculous cuteness after the jump.

I spy: A Colorful Kilim Rug!

(via SFGirlByBay)

It’s the same rug as the one I have in my dining room!!  Today while cruising through my bloglines feeds, I noticed this post and fell in love with all of the colorful vignettes of Tamar Schechner’s home.  Of course, I also loved the fact that we have the same Ikea Kilim rug!!  (Sadly, they no longer carry it or I’d give you a link.)  At any rate, Tamar has done such an amazing job infusing color and pattern into her home without making it seem overwhelming.   (No easy feat let me tell you!)  Her home also seems like a place where I’d love to kick off my shoes and stay awhile.  I love homes like that!  Anyways, just a few more pics from SFGirlByBay’s post after the jump.

Wanderlust

There are times when I see pictures that my husband takes while he’s away on a job and I get a renewed sense of wanderlust. This is one of those times.

Oh well…off to the office I go this morning.

We’re playing rug roulette over here at our house

Yesterday, a friend and I hit up a few yard sales in the suburbs and I was lucky enough to score a gorgeous 9×14 Persian rug from a doctor and his wife that are down-sizing from their suburban mansion to a Center City condo.  It was one of those classic moments at a yard sale, when you look at the price tag and think “Are they serious?!”  I wondered that because the price tag read $100, and that is seriously CHEAP for a real wool Persian rug!  (Meanwhile, I still bargained them to $90 for it.  I know…I feel a little bad, but I’m a firm believer in always bargaining in these situations even when the price is ridiculous.  Take this as a lesson for the next time you’re at a flea market, yard sale or thrift store.)

At any rate, I bought it for our master bedroom because I wanted something in the burgandy-red color family to warm it up.  (Our current rug is a solid pale grey.  No fuss.  No excitement.)  However, it didn’t work out because it turned out to be too large.  Gah!! (I really should remember to ALWAYS keep a tape measure in my purse.)  So, the fact that the rug didn’t fit in our master bedroom started a domino effect of rug switcheroo throughout the house.  We put the new rug in the guest room, the old guest room rug in the living room, and the living room rug in the dining room.

Here’s how it all ended up:

This is the new rug that we got.  It’s going all the way to the wall here because we ended up having to push it as far away from the door as possible so that it would open without having to shave the bottom of the door down.  I just couldn’t bear to start another project this evening, so forgive my laziness.

The living room looks SO much better with this rug in it that I can barely stand it.  I love this rug so much that it only felt right to have it downstairs where I could enjoy it all the time.  Wheeeee!

And now the dining room has the old living room rug.  (This last photo is terrible.  I was rushing there at the end…So sorry!!)  At any rate, getting three new looks for the price of [less-than] one was so much FUN!!  As Layla at The Lettered Cottage says, “Always shop your house first!” In this case, it didn’t exactly come first, but it did come.  And that’s what counts!

My [newest] dream house

As mentioned in the past, I have a fascination with old craftsman style houses.  The other day I ran across a site called Antique Home.org that has scans of tons of old home catalogs from the early 1900′s through the 1960′s.  (Talk about a way to waste a couple of hours on a hot Saturday sitting indoors in the air conditioning trying not to melt away…but I digress.)  These old images and plans made me long for building my own dream home and modifying it just for lil ole us.  Not that that will be happening anytime in the near future, but it was fun to dream.  Anyways, out of all the ones I looked at…the one I thought was just about perfect (with some slilght interior wall re-configuration) was this simple craftsman style.

It’s a 1920′s craftsman called the “Avon” built by Bennett “Better-built” Homes.  It’s straightforward in it’s design, and probably not what you thought I’d say was my dream home, right?!  Look through the Antique Home website, and tell me if you have any dream home’s of your own!

Loving Bow ties!

They’ve been featured on every blog recently, but I couldn’t help but post about the new bow tie that I just bought my sweet hubby!  He’s going to look so handsome in it!

My friend Shauna and her dapper husband Stephen created this new line of bow ties called “Forage.”  Curiosity Shoppe in SF is currently selling them both in-store and online.  (I was at first very sad to know they were only being sold in SF when I live here in Philly…however I was very pleased to discover that they were on the Curiosity Shoppe website today.  However, note they are sold out in many colors / styles.  So get them while they’re hot!)

As a side note, no…I’m not forcing him to wear bow ties.  It turns out that he likes them himself.  It was me that actually took some convincing…at first.  (He’s a very fashion forward kinda guy.)  Here’s a pic of him wearing a bow tie at our friend’s wedding this summer.  I definitely approved (and encouraged) the pattern combo though. He likes new styles and I like mixing prints.  Haha!