Easter Ideas

Love the colours

grey or green - oh, the choices

This should help my vocabulary beyond 'grey or green' - just what I need to get inspired, at my desk and out there !!! I know there are many more names out there (some quite outlandish - just picture a builder ordering 2l of cat's paw ...). but these names mostly have a good link to the actual colour. However, it also shows how very personal colour description can be.

found here (and there is more)

"Ingrid Sundberg, a writer and children's book illustrator, created a useful info graphic chart for anyone struggling with colour names. The writer says that she loves to collect words that can help give her stories variety and depth."

Sales are on

The sales are on in London, summer clothes galore, but when you shop in your winter coat it seems to be only half the fun.

This is what caught our eyes instead at Joseph's in Fulham:

Glass staircase by Eva Jiricna

by aesthetic nomad

Hide and Show

Brighten up a dull day with the kids. Very much like the idea of an ever changing wardrobe (and so much cheaper ;-))

found here via

untothislast

We recently ordered a table top from a major international furniture shop for our daughter who could really do with a bigger desk (so she can put even more very important bits and pieces on it). The table   refused stubbornly to make an appearance at our house (lost order, snow, accident, traffic and overworked driver) and after a few weeks of waiting (and finally cancelling the order) the following concept sounds so much more friendly, manageable, personal and affordable! that I will give it a go.

Unto This Last want to 'offer the convenience of the local craftmans' workshop at mass production prices' by making to order, simplify logistics and using advanced technology.

These especially caught my eye

desk

coatstand

light

I do like the idea of Micro Manufacturing close by. As with our food we seem to have lost an awareness and understanding of how things are made or grown, how much effort it needs to produce something 'well worth it', nice or even beautiful or yummy.
The untothislast concept seems to me a very good compromise, satisfying the price and design conscious as well as the environmentalist. You can visit them on Brick Lane. Now they maybe just have to work on a more simplified version of name?

The Playful City

Check out the London Festival of ARCHITECTURE with lectures, exhibitions etc., on till the 8. July 2012. We will probably check out the Family activities at Burlington House this coming Sunday.

Or do your own Paper City at home!!

Made by Joel 

one of my favourite art project blogs for kids!!

Chelsea Flower Show

Here are two of the gardens that impressed me most:

Quiet Time

Korean DMZ Forbidden Garden

by Jihae Hwang

DMZ stand for Korean Demilitarised Zone - the garden wants to show how nature manages to thrive in an area once fought over and destroyed. It symbolises the history, suffering and hope and ongoing conflict with  plants in abundance, a memorial bench made out of dog tags, bottles with messages to family and friends on the other side, hanging from the fence, a rose next to a bullet and the omni-present watch tower, protecting or threatening? I could not make up my mind about that.

Satoyama Life

by Kazuyuki Ishihara

The designer was inspired by the simple life of people in the Satoyama, living in harmony with nature. I just loved the soft feel of the little garden. Very inviting, but honouring nature with restraining her ever so lightly and with the utmost respect.

Chelsea Flower Show - first Impressions

London Art Fairs and more ...

Found this Guide about the London Art Fair - helps to keep on top of things.

And here you can figure out what to wear in a few years time: The Graduate Fashion Show of the Royal College of Art,  30th Mai

And if the Sofa (among a million other things) can be re-invented, you can explore  here: London Design Week starts tomorrow.

Sosia Bed by Campeggi

via

Travelling in Style

St Pancras

greyorgreen

This is the entrance to St Pancras International Station and its Hotel. Recently renovated it does remind you of the glorious days of travelling.

These days, one needs huge signs to even find the entrance ...

King's Cross

greyorgreen

A Piano for the Hallway

A superb piece of furniture for all the family. I really love the simplicity and accessibility (for big and small) . You will find more about the Piano at Feld.

found here

Very small Houses

According to a report by the Royal Institute of British Architects new-build British Houses  are the smallest in Western Europe and I like to add that looking around affordable houses or flats in London (old or new) you certainly get a claustrophobic feeling.

Flats very often are aimed at young couples with no kids, they will offers 'entertainment' space but tiny bedrooms, and most of them have only two - which really does not encourage you to even start a family. Houses are mostly on the small side, so people have started converting the attic and digging deep.

Here is an impressive (and yes, expensive) example of how one can achieve more space in London

found here

Healthy Spring

Nice idea for improving on your spring salad and a bland window sill

found here

It's Friday

Ceramic Art London starts today till Sunday at the Royal College of Art. On show and for sale is contemporary ceramic from national and international potters. 

Ashraf Hanna

found here

Valeria Nascimento

found here

Sasha Wardell

found here

And keeping with the subject, Edmund De Waal, a leading British ceramics artist has recently wrote a fascinating book about his family, following 264 Japanese netsuke (small wood and ivory carvings of people, animals and plants) which are owned by his ancestors, through time and countries. The Hare with the Amber Eyes is a memoir, a biography in a way, a travel and history book about a Jewish family in exile and a thing book, as the Guardian puts it. De Waal brings to life the things around us. One can nearly feel and seem to touch the objects he describes - the art of pottery, put in writing! 

After a few more and more elaborate editions of this book including a luxurious illustrated version there now also exists an 'enhanced digital edition' (on ibook). Does it add a new layer? I am not sure since the original was not meant as an ebook to start with. I think digital storytelling might be considered a new literary genre altogether, simple adaptations might add a few more interactive layers, but not all books can or should profit from such enhancement. Reading De Waal's comment about the illustrated edition

It feels, I hope, like a book that you want to pick up, an object to be held. I hope there is an intimacy about it, a lack of grand-standing. 

I do have difficulties warming to the slick and glossy iPad edition. 

Visual Note - the Shard

hans chu

find also here

Norfolk House Music Room

The Norfolk House Music Room at the V&A contains the panelling from the former Music Room and the doorways from the Great Room of Norfolk House. The House itself, which used to be at London's St James's Square, was demolished in 1938.

Nevertheless you can go back in time and enjoy free concerts every Friday till 23. March 2012, performed by musicians of the Royal College of Music. Sounds like a lovely idea to start the weekend!

the colour of music

can you guess what it is?

found here

via

P.S. As mentioned before, the V&A is open late every last Friday of the month celebrating art and design. On the 27th they will try to warm you up with HOT BRASIL, installations, contemporary music and more.

Happy New Year

One of my many New Year resolutions will be not to miss out on exhibitions, events, plays, concerts .... in other words: be organised!

Charles Dickens

found here

If you feel the same, want to feed your brain (I certainly need it after an indulgent Christmas)

see all the talks, films, exhibitions etc. around Charles Dickens 200th birthday here

check out the weekly Wednesday lectures at the Idler Academy (I wrote a post about them here),

go to the Wigmore Hall and listen to upcoming Soprano Anna Prohaska,

the AA - Architectural Association - has public lectures and events nearly every day

and update your style at London Fashion Week - starts 17. February 2012

via

Can't wait!

December around the corner

and we started decorating the house a bit. We will never achieve anything like this but I do love the concept and ideas behind these photos

found via

found via

found via

It's Friday

We will be checking out Tom Dixon's shop in Ladbroke Grove this weekend. It's so far away that we will definitely have to stay for lunch, meeting some friends. The shop is all about design and design related art. (Tom Dixon is an industrial designer, who was head of design for Habitat and Artek among others)

found here

The Dock Kitchen was formerly a pop up restaurant gone permanent.

greyorgreen

The setting looks promising, we will keep you posted.

Have a lovely weekend!

Lush

Stumbled across Lush Design  at tea for joy recently and happy to have found that besides a new shop in Greenwich they also have one online ( since I have sadly to admit I very rarely manage to go that far east). Really love their elegant but dreamy designs on lampshades, cushions, napkins etc..

These cats are just perfect for our daughter's room, and I wouldn't mind some of these on the sofa: