The Ghosts of Halloween Past: Advertising Mascots

Every year we have a crazy adult (if you can call us "adults") Halloween party with a theme. We usually start at our house & then get a limo out into Georgetown where the streets are mobbed with costumed-people. I just LOVE IT!!!! (This year, being pregnant, I just wasn't up for the crazy night out, so we had a fun kiddie one instead.) But, I thought I'd share with you one of our past themes: advertising mascots. The first one up is the Sunmaid Raisin Girl:

The box of raisins inspired the whole party. I've always thought my friend Lindsey looks like the Sunmaid Raisin girl & would always suggest she dress up as her for Halloween. Then, I thought of all the other advertising logos & how my other friends could dress up as them. Here's Lindsey, aka "The Sunmaid Raisin" girl in her costume I made from Goodwill finds. (The bonnet is the sleeve of a red button-down shirt and her corsette is from a suit.)



And next is Chiquita Banana:Marcela's costume is AMAZING. She paper mache'd the basket on her head & meticulously glued all the fruit down. She was such a trooper & it stayed on all night!!!! I made her dress out of cheap t-shirts from Michael's:



And here's our Chiquita's husband, Juan Valdez:



Billy, AKA "Juan Valdez" actually made his entrance to the party by knocking on the window and handing in a cup of coffee... It was perfect!!! The mustache got a bit crooked as the night went on & Billy is just hysterical:

And who can forget the Land O Lakes Butter Girl?
Mo was adorable!!!

And even though she's underage, we decided to let the Morton salt Girl join the party.

Erin was perfect! Check out that little mary-jane-clad foot kicked up just like the real Morton Salt Girl:

And we can't have a party without the beer! (ok, we totally can, but let's just pretend! ;)

Here I am as the St.Paulie Girl with a costume made from Goodwill finds:

(I'd originally tried making a "Chicken of the Sea" costume but it was just way too hard to walk around in!) And of course my husband, Sam Adams, was there to help host:

Here he is posing with his friend The Quaker Oats Guy (married to the Morton Salt Girl- what an age gap!! shocking!! ;):

There were a few more gusts I don't have pictures of .. argggg.. Anyway, we've had lots more of these crazy parties & I'll share some more next year. I can't tell you enough how much fun I have on Halloween. We usually start planning in September and my best friends & their husbands come in from out of state. Everyone stresses like crazy about not "having a costume" and in the end they always look awesome. I'm so lucky to have friends who will go along with my silly plans & I love them for it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- the hanging scarecrow wasn't visible at night so no one noticed it (phew! ;) and the kids loved the ghost & taking pictures with him.

I hope it's not Too Creepy...

I still haven't set up all the indoor & food pretties & don't know if I'll have the time to take pics so I thought I'd post a quick peek of our outdoor "spookies" as Christian calls them. We have a big tall ghost (made from those plastic cheapie table cloths) who isn't so scary and a hanging scarecrow who looks pretty real & has been freaking me out all day in our back yard. (He's in the background of the pic above too.):

My poor next door neighbor called me this morning asking if I was trying to give her a heart attack!!! oops!! Anyway, hope the toddler moms aren't too weirded out.
Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! :)

mu-hu-hahahahahahaha,

lauren

A Crazy Lady on Halloween

So it's around 5 am and I've been up not being able to sleep for a couple of hours--- not sure if it's the pregnancy, the cold, or the fact that sometimes I just can't shut my brain off. But anyway, here I am up & thinking about all that needs to be done realizing it just can't happen!

I finally gave up pretending I was going to go back to sleep and started some work but I had to drop a quick post in to say I won't be able to post my kitchen today. I'm sorry & don't mean to dangle a good "before & after," I just simply can't get it all done. I had so many plans for this Halloween too!! I'm returning the fabric I bought for Christian's Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) and he's now going as a store-bought "honey bear"- as he says. The package said "honey bear" on it and I guess one of us read it out loud and now he's not just a "bear" anymore.) I've bitten off more than I can chew lately and have decided that some things just won't get done. hahah like this: (Southern Living)

I also wanted to do the ghost ring that so many of you gave me ideas on.. but when I saw the price on the styrofoam balls ($13 each!!!) I gave up on that... We have one spooky ghost now in my woods and I will post photos of our Halloween party prep later today or tomrorow. (If we can get it all done..) We also hung a very scary man/ scarecrow guy in a tree back in our woods and he looks really life-like so I'm hoping the cops don't show up to investigate. (And that my mommy friends don't get too weirded out.)

I'll be back as soon as I can to post Halloween party pics. It's going to be one of those days where we will be simply giving up at some point because there's no possible way to get all that I have planned done in time. ah vell!! I will have a nice cold rootbeer to celebrate my favorite holiday:

THAT I can handle ;)

xoxo,

lauren

Hanna Säfströms textilier

Hanna Säfström är ny textildesigner som bl a ställde ut under Formex i augusti. Hennes tyger är vackert handtecknade och inspirerade av naturen. De finns att få som kuddfodral, brickor, bäddlinne och som metervara. Bilderna är pressbilder.

A Workspace to Love: Nate Berkus

I could spend hours on the Nate Berkus website. Hours. His spaces are incredible: natural and clean often with a hit of some great graphic pattern. Lots of great sculptural pieces. He's one of my FAVORITES & "DESIGN GREAT" to me!!



In this space I'm loving:


-The chrome Chippendale Chair. Found a pair here :

-The sawhorse glass top worktable: (Check out Copy Cat Chic for some great readily available options)

-The Rug: (haha how small is that image?! I'm no computer whiz!) Of course we know how great & affordable Dash & Abert's Rugs are:

-The raw concrete (I think?) walls. Check out Nelya's basement redo here and her concrete wall: (Photo taken by Nelya at Head Over Heels)

And in the end I'm also just crazy over the styling of the "messy" desk. (My desk never looks this good when it's messy.) The tulips are the bow on top of everything. I love what greenery or fresh flowers do for a space:

Have a great day & I'll be posting our finally-finished-kitchen today or tomorrow!!! (it's pretty gloomy out so pics might be rough! ;)

xoxo,

lauren

Pronunciation of Design Terms

Have you ever come to a point when you are about to say a word out loud & realize that you've never actually spoken it before & are unsure of the pronunciation? You've read it a thousand time & know its definintion but are now embarrassed to say it?

I think this happens a lot to book worms (myself included) who've been reading a word for years & have never looked up its pronunciation. Being mostly self-taught, when I first started out in this field a couple of years ago, I realized there were lots of design terms that fell into this category. (And I'm sure I'll run into more.) I thought I'd share a few that I hear pronouced differently all the time and others that rarely get spoken out loud. I looked them up to get non-biased pronunciations:

Damask: "damn-esk" (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

Jacquard: "Jack-ard" (with emphasis on the first syllable)

Ikat: "ee-kot"

Chinoiserie: "Sheen-waz-er-ee" (image from here)

Patina: "pa-tee-na" or "pa-tin-a"

Grisaille: "griz-ai" (pronounced just like "Versailles") Click here to read a previous post on them.

Etagere: "Ay-taj-eir" (with "taj" pronounced like the "taj" in "Taj Mahal") (image from here)

Klismos: "kliz-moss"

And finally, a name I hear pronounced every which way to Sunday is "Vicente Wolf." Now I'm not sure exactly how he pronounces his name himself, but looking up the pronunciation of "Vicente" you get "Vee-sent-ee"... we might have to "ask Vicente!"

I'm sure a lot of you have probably known these terms for years but maybe some of you, like me, are newer to the design world or had just never spoken the words out loud. (I mean honestly, how many times does the word "grisaille" come up in causal conversation?!) I think it's important for us all to be okay asking questions and to be okay admitting we don't know it all. You learn so much more once you've realized how much you have yet to learn.

xoxo,

lauren

ps- I know I've forgotten a bunch so if there are any more of these words that we hear pronouced lots of diffferent ways or anything you're just unsure of, be sure to mention it in the comments section! I'll post them below! :)

Matelasse: "Maht-luh-sey"

Grattis!

Vinnaren av de vackra marschallhållarna från Röshults är - Jenny G!

Grattis Jenny! Hör av dig till mig så kommer de med posten, du hittar min mail i kanten.

Kalasformar

Så här i höstmörkret känns det som om man vill stoppa i sig kakor i mängder. Visst är de fina kakformarna från Kalasform? Jag kan tänka mig att det blir extra kul att sätta igång med bullbak med så fina formar. Bilderna är pressbilder.

Hanging a Gallery Wall

A client of mine had a huge stash of artwork that her brother had given her years ago... always planning on doing something with some of it but never getting around to it. He made some of the pieces from tissue paper & paint so they're raised & really unique:

Each piece symbolizes something special to them. She has a huge wall going up her stairway so I thought it would be the perfect space to display almost the whole collection. I had them mounted on a dark green velvet (which was one of the few colors that worked with all of the pieces) and framed in shadow box frame sans-glass. We used a laser level, a tape measure, and of course my accommodating contactor & his ladder to hang the gallery wall and it came out perfectly. (love it when that happens!)

We switched out her builder's grade brass fixture for this Arteriors Home antique brass pendant which works with the contemporary artwork but also pays homage to the rest of the house which is actually fairly traditional:

Gallery walls can be perfect for thar forgotton hallway or stairway & often we have the artwork or photos just waiting around our house to be framed. (And prints are so cheap & easy to come by!) They have a huge impact on a space & can be really sentimental. My client loves seeing her brother's artwork first thing when she comes home every day. Do you have any artwork just waiting around to be hung??

xoxo,

lauren

Ljuva 70-tal

Den här lägenheten i Köpenhamn ger mig ljuvliga flashbacks till 70-talet. Titta bara på glasknopparna i hallen på den bruna panelen, 70-talet i ett nötskal. Även soffan byggd av madrasser och naturligtvis de vackra kuddarna. Hade det här verkligen varit på 70-talet hade nog även köket varit brunt. Bilder från Anna Lilja.

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Idag är sista dagen för utlottningen av Röshults vackra marschallhållare, imorgon presenteras en vinnare!! Skynda dig att tävla!