print of the week :: cathy mcmurray

[print of the week]

This week we have Cathy McMurray’s print entitled Bloom. She is a multimedia artist hailing from Portland, Oregon. After teaching high school art in Eugene, OR for ten years, she decided to pursue another dream: owning her own retail store which sold artwork from local artists, but since 2009 she has been pursuing her own art full time. You’ll find a link to her Flickr account at the bottom of the page where you can see all the art she’s created in the past year. Find her Etsy shop here.

 [The Fine Print]
Print of an original mixed media work
Image: 4.5" x 6.25"
Image with border: 8.5" x 11"
Signed on front
Printed on lovely Hahnemuhle sugar cane paper
$18 plus shipping

the amazingness of european design blogs

Over the past few months I have been finding more and more design blogs by people living in Europe that are amazing. It is so refreshing, and their curated posts are always deliciously mod and fresh. Here are few of my favs that you should probably check out if you and I are style friends.

[Confession] Yeah, I have no idea what any of these blog names mean and I sometimes can’t even understand what Google Chrome tries to translate for me, therefore until I learn Norwegian, Icelandic, and French these will be mainly picture blogs for me! The beautiful thing about these blogs is that, hey, there’s still amazing pictures that need no translation!

Click the pictures to be amazingly transported to the blog!

Miluccia from France

ÓLÖF JAKOBÍNA from Iceland

le 13 zor from Belgium

fjellby from Norway

fine little day from Sweden

jose gonzalez – teardrop

[music monday]

José González is a hypnotic folk guitarist and singer, born and raised in Sweden. His music is mostly acoustic, swelling with eerie reverb. It’s reminiscent of cold, winter mornings in a forest home somewhere in the arctic; I’m talking that terrible minute after you escape the warm bed before the sun is up and the fireplace is lit.  Intimate, primitive.

Teardrop is a cover of the amazing Massive Attack song that is just as awesome. It’s amazing how Jose can turn this trip-hop masterpiece into an acoustic folk song and still capture the epicness. Just amazing.

things i like :: hand thrown ceramics

[things i like]

from Yoshiaki Nagashima

from kirstie van noort

from Terttulla

from Pigeon Toe Ceramics

from Fine Little Day

from Heath Ceramics

kitchen love

If there’s one thing I love about kitchens, it’s open shelving. Seriously, it sometimes has me weak at the knees. Honestly, it may just be because of the thought of being able to vainly display my carefully-curated collection of dishes that I thoroughly adore.
Here are the best of the best, people (in my opinion.)

from The Sugar Mountain

from Country Living

from Design*Sponge

from Decor8

from weheartit.com

clam lab :: etsy spotlight

[an etsy shop spotlight]

Deep End Mug

Clam Lab is Clair Catillaz, currently sculpting, homebrewing, and living in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She’s been pounding out modern ceramic lovelies for Clam Lab since 2009, but she’s no newbie to having clay-crusted clothes. She and her mom took their first ceramic class when she was 12. I’m not sure how I happened upon Clam Lab but I’ve been drooling over her pieces ever since and pinning them to Pinterest like crazy.
Click here for a great little collection of photographs showing Clair’s process and a wee interview at the end.

Click on any photo to see it in the shop.

Custom Dinnerware Set in Oatmeal

Raw Chocolate Teapot

Berry Bowl

Chocolate Tea Bowl

Everything Bowl in Chocolate

Nesting Bowl Trio

print of the week :: christopher david ryan

[print of the week]

This week we’ve got Christopher David Ryan aka CDR and his Birds Print. He is a New England-based graphic artist + illustrator whose hands are in a number of interesting projects. “Since 2005 [his] shop has been a marketplace for CDR’s work in all of its forms; prints, books, tees and various other bits & bobs,” according to his shop.

Check out his website here.

[The Fine Print]
• Museum grade archival digital print 
• 100% cotton, Giclee paper 
• 9 x 12 Inches ($18)
or 18 x 24 Inches ($48)
• Unframed 
• Printed in the USA

Click here to see the print in his shop.

zola jesus – vessel

[music monday]

from theweirdfishes.com

Zola Jesus is probably the best thing that has ever come out of Madison, Wisconsin.

…

Wow, that’s totally rude. Let’s start over.
Zola Jesus is Nika Roza Danilova, a Russian-American 22-year-old from the forests of Wisconsin. She recorded her first full-length album in her dorm room one winter while attending University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009 … but you can read all about that on Wikipedia.

I first heard this song and this artist on an NPR playlist last year. My first impression was “Woah.” Hope you enjoy.

couch love

My couch situation right now is pretty sad. I’m definitely lucky to have a family hand-me-down and not something I found on the side of the road however. I’m also lucky that my mom has amazing taste, but the bright, purple, floral couch she picked out 15 years ago belongs more in Central Perk than it does in my earthy, mid-century cave of a house. So I am dearly looking forward to the day that we get to slap down the big bucks and purchase the couch my living room has been dying for.
If my husband and I can find the happy place between our tastes we might end up with a couch like one of these:

from Salvage Love

from Flickr

This couch below might be my favorite of the group. I love this color!

via Bonnie Tsang Photography

via Fine Little Day

from Manhattan Nest

iPhone cases

It’s true, folks. I am the proud new owner of an iPhone. As someone who is new to the smartphone and portable computer realm, I feel like I have been in a dizzying whirlwind the past six days as I’ve been getting to know this new magical device that can do everything for me except roast marshmallows at a moment’s notice.

So as I sit down at my computer for the first time in literally 6 days, I think that it would be a good idea to dedicate this post to iPhones and all their excessive glory. Here is a roundup of the iPhone covers available out there in Internetland that have caught my fancy. Can you guess which one is mine?

Left to right, top to bottom.
[1.Blue Chevron iPhone case] [2.Knitta Please iPhone case] [3.DG Aztec #1 iPhone case]
[4.Soma iPhone case] [5.Arnsdorf SS11 Crystal Pattern iPhone case] [6.Flower Burst iPhone case]
[7.elago S4 Slim fit Case iPhone case] [8.Walnut Root Cases iPhone case] [9."Allusion" iPhone case]