i like

gozde eker's cup of dream via design for mankind

coterie shop via simple lovely

olympic firebowl/grill skagerak from horne

string theory shawls

"the leftovers" created by jordi ferreiro

ms. irene

hell hath no furry like a  tropical storm scorned. my prayers go out to the people in vermont and new york that were the hit the hardest by ms. irene. i'm not quite sure what your lover did to you to make you so angry, but i know you originated in the warm waters off of africa and i wish you would of dissipated in the huge barreness of the atlantic ocean before coming ashore.

anyway, after a couple of days of interrupted life we are getting back to normal today. we had to evacuate on saturday because we live in the coastal flooding zone in newport. my sweet brother who is also a rockstar survival gear man opened up his place in boston for us to schlep tons of luggage (who knew how long we might have to stay and for how long we would be without power for) and 4 bodies (2 that especially don't sit still for long and require moving of glass objects to higher locations for fear they would break them over each other's heads). we had fun all together on saturday night and my brother has cable tv. yes, the big kahuna. we did away with it this summer, so the girls got their fill of mind numbing tv shows. oh, and if you are ever left without power or in an emergency situation call my brother, matt lubs, he's prepared for anything. bottles of water, batteries, candles, granola bars, radios powered by batteries, board games, head lamps for everyone in the family, and first aid kits in almost every room because you never know when you'll cut your arm off and need a tourniquet.

after weathering the storm on sunday we called our neighbor who decided to stay in newport and she said all was okay. just some heavy winds with some downed branches but no major flooding. so after we said a prayer of thanks we decided on returning to no electricity on sunday night so we could try and salvage all the food we had in our refrigerator and freezer. after sorting through all of our freezer food i realized i must stop purchasing frozen vegetables. i swear there were 20 bags of every green vegetable known to man in our freezer which makes times like this where i want to shake my head and say what was i thinking. so after putting all our perishables in coolers with ice bags we decided to embrace the moment of tranquility instead of being bitter about being without electricity. so lots of twizzler eating by candle light and story telling and playing with wax once the candles burned. on monday we woke up and we were sort of, dare i say, liking this no electricty thing. quality family time, a long walk around newport, and a trip to the playground. before we knew it we got the electricity back on monday around noon. secretly i was a little disappointed. i know, the people still without power are cursing me right now, but my inner girl scout was starting to make an appearance and it was sort of fun.

wanted to thank the national grid workers that traveled from texas, idaho, and michigan to help us rhode islanders get our electricity back. you worked fast, almost faster than i would have liked in our no electricity world.

happy weekend

happy weekend! hope all the east-coasters stay safe from irene. this is the first hurricane we have been up against living in newport, ri. so i'm praying she has another party to go to further out in the atlantic. anyway, we went to the save the bay aquarium today and the girls had a blast. they were picking up spider crabs larger than the size of their hands and they weren't afraid. i guess my goal to shepherd girls that aren't afraid to get dirty and who embrace nature instead of pink wearing princesses that get manicures and pedicures at age 3 has worked in some ways. no?!? we will be hunkering down from the storm, but i do have a craving for some garage sales and thrift stores on saturday morning. so hugs and kisses to you all and hope you enjoy this weekend and all that mother nature has planned.

image by paul costello. 

scandinavian house tour

pure bliss! so delightful everywhere you turn in this house. from bolaget via mackapar.

the society inc store

 

 just found out that sibella court and society inc. opened a webshop. fabulous news!! check out all the grooviness here.

scenes from the weekend

simmons farm. newport winefest with matt and briana. celebrating briana's birthday. mussels in white wine sauce with linguine served family style outside for dinner. a lazy sunday morning at the beach. k playing dress-up in my high heels. party at belle mer.

design candy on a friday

 

photo 1 ,2 ,3 ,4 ,5, 6, 7

 happy friday! hope you all have a fantabulous weekend and enjoy all that summer brings. we are having some friends over for drinks and appetizers tonight. then on saturday my bro and briana are coming to stay with us and we're heading to the newport winefest and a party at belle mer on sunday. have a wonderful weekend!

horse and girl print

purchase this lovely horse and girl print by paul ferney only until 8 am pst tomorrow (8/19) from here. and see what it looks like on the wall in joslyn from simple lovely's beautiful house.

2nd photo by joslyn taylor

photography by murray fredericks

 

i grabbed the new september issue of national geographic magazine before my husband was able to look at it and i was blown away by the photography of the salt flats in australia's highly saline lake eyre by murray fredericks. sublime. it almost looks like abstract art to me. there is a poster size insert included in the magazine with these photographs and i swear i want to tear it out and put it right by my bed i love it that much. look at more of murray fredericks photography here.

quahog baskets

 i recently picked these quahog baskets up at an antique store in rhode island for a steal. all i need to do now is get my high waters on and start digging for clams.

maya lin

maya lin, one of the most notable artists of our time, has sustained a careful balance of art and architecture during her career. her beautiful creations in sculpture and landscape architecture move me every time i look at her work. at age 21 she beat out 1441 competitors in a public design competition for the vietnam veterans memorial. she is a woman i truly admire and want to learn more about. so i'm going to try and go to the jane pickens theater tonight at 6 pm to watch the documentary titled, "maya lin: a strong clear vision". above are some of the projects she has created. learn more about her here. 

photos from maya lin studio.

mociun for baggu

love the new collection of prints created for baggu by brooklyn-based designer mociun. see all of the latest creations here.