Item of Note: Swallow Wall Clock

How cool is this Swallow Wall Clock from A+R by designer Griffin Yang of Haoshi Design. A Dozen flying swallows in the midst of different movement in flight makes up the the numbers of the clock. The concept and the detail in the design is absolutely unique, lovely and peaceful.

23.6"h x 23.6"w x 4.7"d

Handmade resin-cast swallows

Take a look at Haoshi's Swallow Wall Clock @ A+R

The earthy home via the use of wood

Under the rules of Feng Shui I am an earth sign which means that I get a lot of pleasure from using wood inside my home, and it just so happens that I am drawn to wood. But in all honesty, you don't have to be an earth sign to appreciate using wood in your home and I've got the pictures to prove it!

Below are a few pictures of homes that have incorporated wood into their home. It's beautiful, earthy and yet striking.

I find the mixture of using raw wood for walls and contemporary furniture rather appealing, a rather pleasant balance of rustic earthiness and current times is met perfectly in this way.

Hello color! Orange and green to pair with wood? There are no better colors to keep wood looking fresh, fun... and funky!

The wooden storage boxes along the wall storing wood amongst other things is a smart way to make wood useful as well as make it a key feature of a room.

Sometimes it is the simple things that get the most attention. Wood is incorporated into the design (pictured above) by way of the floating wooden staircase, the simple wood trim around the doors, and of course there is the oversized wooden coffee table. In this case, less is more.

And a few examples where less isn't more.

Two favorite looks of bathrooms that use wood as a main source of mood. The bamboo wood in the above bathroom is serene and zen, while the choice of wood wall int he below bathroom leans towards being more rustically chic.

I Stand Behind: Allen Jeffries Framing

I'm a framer or to better put it, I'm an individual who appreciates what a frame can do for a common print or poster, which is in my opinion, transforming. For example, The Velvet Underground & Nico yellow banana by Andy Warhol is a poster I purchased at Amoeba Music for under $20. A common $20 print is currently the important piece of artwork that hangs between my living room, entryway and family room, this being the case I had to get it framed nicely- presentation is everything. Presentation can turn a $20 poster into a notable center piece!

After searching and researching frame shops in Los Angeles I decided to hit up Allen Jeffries Framing (in Los Angeles, located on 3rd street) after having been estimated an "over-my-budget" cost for custom framing at Aaron Brother's I decided that Allen Jeffries might at least be worth the stop. The store is small and the people who work there are amiable and know what they're talking about, this already put me at great ease. The back of the store is buzzing with professional framers measuring, cutting and of course, framing. The professionalism of it all was a little intimidating but that feeling went away as soon as I sat down with one of the employees to discuss my framing project, my print, my vision and eventually the price point I was trying obtain.

The help was quick to sugget a number of things from dry-mounting, to floating, to matting but was never pushy- a quality I always appreciate. And with the serious number of frames available the right cost was something very obtainable. While Aaron Brother's had quoted me a custom frame that was almost $200 I was able to get my print dry-mounted and framed for under $100! When I picked up my order a couple days later the frame was nicely wrapped up and not a scratch on it, it looked impeccable. For the price and the quality of service I couldn't have asked for more, Allen Jeffries definitely made a long standing customer out of me.

Want to frame? Check out Allen Jeffries

Home Of: Nathaniel Goldberg

Nathaniel Goldberg

A.K.A:  Nathaniel Goldberg

Date of birth:  Unknown

Place of birth:  Paris

Occupation:  Fashion Photographer

Most famously known for his fashion photographs

*Pictures from Elle Decor

View of front of property

Living room

Fireplace in Living room

Alcove

Bathroom

Dining room

Kitchen

Terrace

Read the full article:

Paris on the Hudson: Nathaniel Goldberg's Hudson Valley Home by Nancy Hass

@ Elle Decor

The wooden Rocking Rabbit with a very Swedish design

The coming of a new born definitely gets you to notice things that you otherwise wouldn't, in my case it's anything related to cute little furry critters, especially rabbits! I've already got my eyes on an adorable long-eared plush rabbit doll that sits upfront in the window display of a store... and now this too, the Rocking Rabbit designed by Swedish designer Bjorn Dahlstrom. The wooden Rocking Rabbit comes in three different colors: red, white and black, features leather ears and a killer clean Swedish design that'll lend a touch of modern-ness to any nursery... and of course, most important, keep your little one smiling.

Check out the Rocking Rabbit in more detail @ A+R

I Stand Behind: Attic Insulations

It's been a year since my husband and I moved into our very first home, a century old, one story, 1400 square foot home with wall gas-heaters and no central air. If there is anything we have learned in this one year of owning our home it is that in the summer it is best to spend days in the nicely air-conditioned mall or perhaps even go for a nice long grocery store run in the freezer section, let's just say, if it's sweltering outside you don't even want to know what it's like inside. And during the winter thank the good lord for sweaters, sweaters and more sweaters not to mention layers of down-comforters and knit socks, let's just say "ice box" to keep it simple. And from a year of temperature agony what have we learned? Insulation is damn important!

During the winter our wall gas-heaters barely worked at all in keeping the house warm, because our house was not well insulated (minuscule cracks and gaps around windows, outlets, light switches, doors, including no attic insulation) kept the house from trapping in the heat, and thus we were running our gas wall-heaters 24/7 which comes out to many $$$$s.

During the summer, before we were blessed with the knowledge of Texas Summer (a strategy by which to keep your house cool for as long as possible without running the A/C), if it was 103 degrees outside you can bet it was just as hot, if not more, inside. Without the attic insulation to separate the rest of the house from the heat in the attic meant that the heat radiating from the attic to inside the home was keeping the house unbearably hot during the summer heat.

This was a problem we could not even stand to think about baring every year, so we got to work on insulating. We began by taping up those minuscule cracks and gaps around windows, light switches, outlets, fireplace, doors and such. Unfortunately this did very little to help, there's just no way of getting every crack and gap in the house and of course insulating these areas just wasn't the key to making a marked difference in temperature.

So we decided to go with attic insulation, this took the workers 2 hours of pumping recycled insulation to cover our entire attic floor with a thick layer of what looked like puffy clouds. Within the next two days I was able to see a marked difference in the temperature of our home. We no longer lived in an ice-box during winter nights and mornings, and the daytime temperature of the house was no longer sweltering on warm-to-hot days outside. On sunny days I simply draw the curtains to block out the light of the sun and the house becomes instantly cooler. On cold nights I run the gas wall-heater for a hour to feel comfortably warm opposed to all night or all day as I had done before to no avail.

Further insulation research I've done have resulted in the knowledge that attic insulation can cool the house up to 10 degrees! Not only have I been basking in attic insulation delight with our better regulated home temperature but have seen a difference in gas bills which sky-rocketed during winter, no longer having to run our gas wall-haters unnecessarily long means of course, smaller gas bills.  And I'm sure if we had central air those electric bills would also be smaller as well. In a perfect world your home would be 100% insulated- I'm not even sure if that is possible, but if you have to choose a form of insulation... I stand behind attic insulation, it will make the most noticeable difference.

Nurseries to draw inspiration from

In 3 months my husband and I will be welcoming a new addition to our 2-person and 1 four-legged family, we are to say the least, very excited. I find that I am humbled a little more everyday by the experience and the anticipation of carrying a child and bringing him home this coming July. 

So, 3 months and counting, and there is still much to do in terms of getting the nursery ready. I already have most of the furnishings but the ambience/mood of the room isn't quite there yet and this I find to be the most important aspect, for me anyway. I know I love the color yellow, the happiness of the color draws me to it when thinking of the nursery. I know I want the nursery to be comfortable, lived-in yet organized and tidy. I want the nursery to exude happiness, love and fun.

Time to gather samples for ideas and of course there's no better way to do that than hitting the web! Here are a few choice images I chose from the many that I gathered.

THE MOOD

The range of ambience or mood that can be created for your nursery is much wider than you can imagine. These days new parents are creating nurseries for their pint-sized selves that you wouldn't even be able to imagine. I found this to be quite inspiring and it made me realize how much fun it's going to be to create an atmosphere for my child to grow up in. I ran into many images of the 'traditional' nursery settings, but then there were romantic settings full of chandeliers and canopied cribs in white and pastel pinks, there were more contemporary settings (as seen pictured above) where the room exudes comfort and a lived-in quality. There were clearly unique nurseries filled with wood accents that screamed modern country and even hipster styles. There were plain modern nurseries and simple chic nurseries, they were all beautiful and of course inspiring to look at.

Hipster!

Modern country

Modern

So chic

FOR COLOR

A really popular pairing for nursery colors was a hue of blue or teal paired with hues of yellow. I found the pairing to be quite please (as you can see by the images above and below). Using pastels or not the two colors bring out airiness, happiness and a fun little spunk that can be used for either boys' or girls' nurseries.

The more 'now' or contemporary colors used for nurseries were darker colors paired with white and accented with a fun pop of color (yellow or orange is used in the images above and below). While most at some point in time way back when, would have said "no no not for a  nursery" to these darker  'moodier' colors: black and dark gray, I actually found them to be yes, untraditional, but unique and still fun and completely color appropriate for a nursery. Just goes to show that with the proper decor and accent colors you really can make any color work for a nursery.

WALL ART

Popular amongst many of the nurseries I came across were stenciled trees around the crib, and there is quite a variety of tree stencils to pick from. However, not only do you have a variety of stencil trees to pick from but it is also probably one of the most economical ways to go in terms of wall art.

The ABC wall

Then of course there were other wall art/decors that I found worthy of posting, all of them unique, interesting, fun, smart and exuding a particular style not all that traditional of nurseries and yet inspiring to push us to think beyond traditional nursery settings.

The folky frames and pictures

The UNpainted tree wall art

THE CRIB

The crib is probably the most important furnishing in the nursery, for obvious reasons, and there are, like with everything else, so many to choose from. But regardless of whether you opt for a vintage crib, a metal crib, a wood crib, a contemporary crib, a traditional crib &tc the decor that surrounds it will ultimately give it the final say. I found a couple of crib images that I found worth talking about, 1. The canopied crib. A smart way to keep out the light when your baby is taking a nap, and of course, it looks absolutely darling. And, 2. The vintage crib. I found that the vintage-styled cribs exudes the most character by itself without even the help of surrounding decor, which means that going for a minimal styled nursery is easily possible, and also, the vintage crib is simply adorable.

OTHER IDEAS TO BE CONSIDERED

Other smart and fun ideas to be considered are the DIY mobiles. I've personally really been wanting to make my own moible but found the idea of doing it myself (which of course will be ideal in terms of budget and making it personalized) a little scary, however after seeing a few simple mobile designs I've realized that it will be much easier than I imagined (more on this DIY mobile in a later post!).

A second idea that I really loved in a couple of nurseries that I came across was the kiddie bookshelf, where the books are leaned up against the wall for easy picking... and a smart, colorful way to fill a large blank wall. As I am an avid reader and hope that my child too will love to read, I think yes, I'm definitely doing this one!