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L&G Project
I'm so excited. I just picked up a classic Rolleicord V twin lens medium format camera today on Craigslist! It's from the mid '50s but has (according to the owner) had less than 10 rolls of film shot on it EVER. It shows too. It's absolutely clean right down to inner workings and the near-perfect leather case.
The best part: it was only $125!
I can't wait to get out there and take my first shots! In the meantime I'll just oogle over my latest find.
This weekend's Get the Look: Decor is inspired by the bright and colorful Seattle, Washington apartment of Jean and Dylan of ladiesandgentlemen. When it comes to finding great deals on vintage treasures and furniture, this couple has discovered the secret. With their background in industrial design, they also enjoy the challenges of remodeling a kitchen or building custom shelves that meet the demands of displaying their many vintage collections. I recently interviewed Jean to find out more about Ladies and Gentlemen's decorating process. Read on to learn how to achieve their distinctive look.
Dylan and Jean appreciate objects, be they high design or the everyday mundane. Dylan tends to gravitate to modern, clean, technical and minimal pieces, while Jean has a way of finding items with lots of color, texture and character. They're both accumulators, so the resulting collection is a great mix of simple and complex.
"When we started the L&G shop last year, our affection for knick knacks, housewares and various eclectic objects really grew. Every time we find things for the L&G shop, we ended up keeping some stuff for ourselves. It's kind of a curse in disguise, since we still have trouble figuring out where to put everything."
Ladies and Gentlemen love to display objects they cherish, so shelves and storage are critical. Storage within storage is even better to create various divided spaces to display items from giant beakers to tiny little pods and toys. "Shelves allow us to quickly and easily change the feeling of our space and house our collection of goods. In our dream space, we would like have an entire wall of floor to ceiling shelves. It's well worth the added dusting!"
Dylan and Jean use their finds to create collages in their space. "Our permanent architecture and furniture tend to be more simple, timeless and versatile, so that they work well with whatever 'collage' of quirky objects we collect. As we develop our new space, we try to make initial decisions deliberately to change and grow over time. Every once in awhile we like to completely rearrange on a whim, too. It's always changing and evolving."
Visit Etsy's There's No Place Like Here flickr pool to view more photos of Jean and Dylan's home.
You can see the actual post, too see what they pick to get the L&G look! here.
Here's some recent picks of L&G items on other Etsy posts.
L&G item on Etsy's Finds Vintage: The art of Display
L&G on Etsy's "A Cozy Home" gift guide.
I was browsing Etsy's great "Get the Look:Home Decor Edition" and was thrilled to find that one of the Etsy admin picked an L&G item be part of the look ! The inspiration was from the Brooklyn, NY home of illustrator Alex Eben Meyer. This happened on the 8th...I'm always little behind on the news...but I can still pretend that it just happened, right?
Here it is nonetheless! Ta-da!
They picked out L&G;s vintage dart board! I had to put a heart around it. :D
You can read the article, here!
You don’t want to end up like Brett and Germane, so follow us and Parlons Francais and brush up on your French!
What better motivation to learn a foreign language than the promise of an incredible, neat illustration waiting for you on the next page? Learn some words and you can impress pretty much anyone! We learned some French terms and now use them on a daily bases! We like to walk the corner market “Sept-Onze” (or more commonly known to Americans as 7-Eleven) and pick up a croissant and a slurpeé using our superior French speaking skills. We come off so cultured.
Parlon Francais is a set of 8 mini-books that are full of charming illustrations that make the leafing through them a delight. The best part is that each book has pages that can be removed and played on a record player for pronunciation.
Here are a few lessons along with some darling visual aids for you (read and repeat aloud…you want to learn French don’t you?): 
“Comment allez-vous?” - How are you?
“l'oiseau est dans l'arbre” - The bird is in the tree.
“L’Oiseau et Le Chat” - The bird and the cat.
"La Famille" - Family
"Nous allons en vacances" - We go on vacation.
"Mes chaussures sont de très petites" - My shoes are very small.
“Je voudrais un grand ballon rouge, s’il vous plait” - I would like a large red balloon please.
“Regardez-vous les animaux” - Look at the animals
Now you know all these phrases, your homework is use them and we'll gurantee that you'll impress someone...unless that person happens to be French. Au revoir! You can see more images, here.
So as you know, last Dec, Dylan and I were part of JOIN: Design Seattle show. It was at this show that the first Ladies & Gentlemen Studio pieces was born...our Alpha Brass lamps and Mega Doily rug. 
We're proud and honored to part of this new up & coming design collective along with other awesome Seattle designers like:
Iacoli&Mcallister and 
Gray pants. We are combining all of our forces to build a stronger design community in Seattle showcasing North American Designs through JOIN:Design Seattle. We are excited to present our next event, and our first juried show:
JOIN and Ouch My Eye are seeking submissions for Ctrl+Alt+Design slated for June 12th, 2009. The juried show will primarily focus on showcasing work by emerging American designers working in the areas of furniture, lighting, soft goods and home accessories. You can get more details about the show and apply, here. This is a good excuse to turn that napkin sketch into a real thing. It's free, so you just gotta make it happen!
We're looking forward to see all the submissions! Remember the Deadline is MAY, 8, 2009. So feel free to apply and spread the word to any desingers out there, too!
Check out JOIN Flickr site to see photos of our past shows.
Please contact Jamie Iacoli with any questions at:
press [at] joinDesignSeattle [dot] com.
Storytime on an awesome seventies home decor book "How to Decorate Without going Broke." Check it out! 
Here's some ideas....you thought it's about being resourceful and saving space? Well...Think again. During times like this, what better time to make a giant bird bed, some stuffed sheep as chairs, and giant soft set of teeth than now?
Read more and see more photos Here.
This is our second storytime post. It's a book by Tana Hoban, an amazing photographer and children's book publisher. This book if from the 70's and the photos are simply beautiful. It's fun for both adults and kids to read!
And that's suppose to be me holding the book...hee hee.
Dylan and I are bring a few "Storytime" installments to Poppytalk. This first one is about the great 1962 Seattle World's Fair. We found this little souvenir booklet with colorful and charming illustrations of all the-once-fantastic-and-futuristic-monuments. They're all still fantastic of course, but the monorail is definitely not what is made up to be....
Read more on Poppytalk, Here.
Check out our duplex blog, thirty-thirtytwo for some before and afters in our living room and kitchen and flickr for some more shots and details of the current affair of things in our new home. It's shaping up nicely, but still so much work to do.
It's the first day of Lunar New Year starting today until February 13th. Dylan and I did a special guest blog for Poppytalk on some fun photos & findings we got in Chinatown. Check out Poppytalk to read more!
If you're in Seattle, there will be outdoor new year celebration this Sunday, January 31st. Click here for details. A good excuse to get some dim sum before hand!
This week Jan from Poppytalk invited L&G to be a guest blogger!! Hurray! Dylan and I are super excited about this one where it's about celebrating the new year. It's a instructional post about creating an easy and impressive mix-your-own cocktail bar. What is this about??
Well...to summarize it, it's about expanding your New Years drinking options that's beyond cheap champagne. It's about making the guests feel like they're participating in something fun while in reality, it's about you doing less work and having more fun at your own party for once. And even with you putting all your guests to work...you'll still be rewarded by the praises from your guests. You can say BOOH-YAY! to that my friend.
Read all the details on Poppytalk about how to make this into your reality!
Here are some drink recipes to jump-start your ultimate New Year celebration party!
Irish Coffee (via Drinks Mixer)
15 oz Irish whiskey or Irish Cream
10 tsp brown sugar
60 oz hot coffee
Heavy whipping cream
Cocoa powder
Make the coffee (stronger the coffee the better), add sugar and mix Irish cream or whiskey (or both!). Mix. Whip the whipping cream. Put whipping cream and cocoa powder in separate bowls on the side.
Oolong Infused Ginger Plum Wine (L&G Recipe)
1/2 cup of Loose Oolong tea leaves
10 cups of water
1 bottle(750ml) of Plum Wine
1-2 inch chunk of fresh ginger based on preference
ginger ale on the side (My favorite is the Organic Santa Cruz Ginger Ale…it has real ginger! It makes 10 times better.)
Prep the tea the day before. But if you don't have time, cut the water amount in half and add the other half with ice instead. Brew the loose tea leaves with hot boiling water. Let it steep for 3 minutes. Strain the tea leaves, Simply add the plum wine, chop/shred the ginger. Mix it all it in a pitcher and there's your mix. Put the ginger ale on the side in an ice bowl to keep it cold.
Lemon Mint Sparkling Mimosa (L&G Recipe)
1 750ml Bottle Champagne
16 oz Lemonade (blood orange or grapefruit juice are also fantastic)
½ of fresh mint
2-3 Lime or Lemon
1 pomegranate
Tonic water
Mix Champagne and lemonade in a pitcher. Chop and crush the mint and add it to the mix. Put the lemons or limes and pomegranate in separate bowls on the side. Put tonic water on the side in an ice bowl to keep it cold.
It's easy to create your own concoction as long what your mixing all goes well together. You can add Mexican hot chocolate with coffee and coffee liquor, or use different fruit juice and fruit with vodka or gin.
But if anything, Martha always has tons of good cocktail recipes! And at Drinks Mixer you can find thousands of drink recipes...from the classic drinks to the really unheard of ones...anything you're looking for, they have it all.
We hope that this can come in handy for any celebrations! Happy New Year!
Ok, maybe the title is a little dramatic, but I can't help but feel giddy after resounding success of JOIN: Design Seattle's second opening at the Vermillion Gallery last Thursday! Everything came together to be an inspiring display of refined, unique, varied, viable products. Amazing job everyone involved! Special props to Jamie and Brian from Iacoli & McAllister for putting the show together. Also thanks to the Vermillion for hosting us. If you're in Seattle, definitely check out the show and the space (which has an adjunct bar/eatery in the back). The show runs through Jan 4th.
We want all of these in our living room!: Urbancase credenza + Submaterial felt wall hanging + Ladies and Gentlemen's Mega-Doily area rug
Iacoli & McAllister's Corian and steel furniture and lights
Close up of Submaterial's felt wall hanging...all 900+ cut and assembled by hand!
Gray Pant's genius cardboard lighting. Photography can't describe how awesome the light travels through the cardboard layers in person!
Meet Me Here's bags: Jean just had to buy one!
Ladies and Gentlemen first studio project: AlphaBrass! Stay posted for more info on our projects.
There will be an one-day only sale at the opening with some great smaller affordable items such as holiday ornaments, jewelery, bags and more!! Can't miss it!!
We just got back from setup where we witnessed first hand how sweet the show is going to be. Everyone's stuff looks great in the space and we're so psyched to be able to participate.
See you there!
L&G got blogged on one of my favorite blog...Oh Joy! Joy's blog shares an aray of inspiration from handmade goods, to international designs, to homegoods, to fashion and beyond. Not only does she have a fantastic blog, she also has her own line of beautfiul paper goods, Nantaka Joy and runs Oh Joy Studio. 
Just reading about her client list, accomplishments and work makes me feel like I'm the biggest slacker! I feel shameful.....How does she manage to do it all?!....only god knows...and I suppose Joy herself would know, too.
On top of all other mayhem this holiday season, we're super excited to be participating in a design show that is showcasing NW design. It's called JOIN: Design Seattle and will be taking place beginning at the opening on Dec 11th at the Vermillion Gallery in Seattle.
What does L&G have up their sleeves you ask?? Here's a sneak peak with some process shots:
We're presenting two separate but related projects that look at ways to re-represent classic forms of vintage objects in ways that showcase their inherent qualities. Just like the goods in the L&G store, our goal is to help facilitate an appreciation of existing objects.
"AlphaBrass" is a series that re-formats ornate brass lamps in ways that enhances the varieties of classical forms they are available in. These lamps are modular, so the potential to mix and match is limited only on the supply available from local thrift stores. Adjusting scale, paring down details and reiterpreting function will hopefully promise to add value and appreciation for these typically stuffy living room fixtures.
For "Mega-doily" (the second project), Jean has taken her new found appreciation for crocheting doilies and channeled it into a grand interpretation of the common table top item. The result is an area rug with a satisfying knobby texture and bold graphical presence.
There will be more posts on both of these featured as we wrap up the final details and get these to the Vermillion just in the nick of time. If you're in the Seattle area, please please come visit us and come see it in person plus 6 other designer's work!
For some reason I've been feeling super holiday-spirity-lately, but maybe it's the jolly feeling that is still resonating since the election. Either way....It got me and Chika excited for the holiday season...and life in general!! So, here it is! Our Chikabird cozy fuzzy wozy holiday items!
Left: Mama bird's nest made by Chika's talented mom, Tsuneko. Top Right: Linen zipper pouches with sulple indigo Vera Wang Linen. Bottom Right: Custom felt/fabric monogrammed slippers. (the one in the photo is for me...heh. J for JEAN!)
These are the vintage ornaments that I'm making for L&G. I have it in various series: Monogrammed letters, Safari animals, forest animals, farm animals, birds, and classic ornaments.
Jan from Poppytalk was nice enough to mention us on her lovely blog! 
oh and this..I really just LOVE the Mama Bird's nests, which made me go camera happy with it. I was expereimenting with these felted eggs....what do you think?? The face is just a piece of paper with pushpins for the eyes. They're gonna live next to our sewing machine now. :)
Is this making you feeling all warm&fuzzy inside?? no?? Hmmm.....Okay. Maybe I'll try something else...like putting all of our things on a puppy or a kitten or a baby...or all the above where the baby is on the puppy and with a kitten on top....That should do the job, right? :D
Yay! L&G's exclusive holiday ornaments has just been featured on Decor8 with her weekly etsy take five Tuesdays! Holly from Decor8 has super wonderful taste, so I'm thrilled to be mentioned!
These L&G ornaments are made with 1/8" birch plywood and vintage wallpaper that I've collected over the years. They been mostly sitting in a pile...as much as I love having them around, I'm much happier making things with it!
I've been getting into the whole holiday season and is brewing up all these ideas and projects. So stay tune for more things that's gonna make you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. :D
Since the last post, I've been wondering about that book "The Fugitive Pigeon" written in 1965 by Donald E Westlake...So I looked it up and this is the ACTUAL story line...
"Listen carefully to this story, originally published in 1965, to catch the occasional telltale clues to its age. In this comic crime caper, Charlie Poole works the bar in Canarsie (Brooklyn) for his Mafia-connected Uncle Al, occasionally holding packages for late-night pickup. Suddenly, life gets exciting when two hit men show up to silence Charlie. He manages to escape, but he's on the run, hiding from the organization and at the same time trying to contact the boss to find out what error brought all this upon him. Of course there's a beautiful girl."
I do like how it says it's the "gayest chase of the year!" But, seriously...how can a story about someone running for his life be "gay"? But it doesn't matter, because there's a beautiful girl involved.
Still, I think I like my story line better (not to be cocky).....I just like the idea of an actual pigeon running for its life from two humans. Just picture that in your head for a second.....yeah...heh heh....that's WAY funnier. :D
So this is it! It's our final goodbye to Dylan & I's very first apartment in the hip Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle. We did what our landlord called "terminal" cleaning on every inch of the 1400 sqft apt/studio....one that would get us back the non-refundable $150 cleaning fee. We thought...."$150..that's money that we can use in our home improvement fund! YAY!"
Little did we know...it took us a whole week to fully, TERMINALLY clean!!
We gathered the most essential and effective cleaning tools ever assembled..as we switched between a spray bottle to disinfect, a sponge to scrub the wall, a toothbrush to brush the nooks & crannies, a rag to wipe, and a bucket to rinse. We cleaned through the late nights while the city slept. We scrubbed, wiped, sprayed, and then scrubbed some more.....We were determined.
One may ask...Was it worth it? But I would ask... can one put a price on a spiritual experience that taught us the value of patience and endurance? And can one really put a price on the intimate personal experience I had cleaning the bathroom where I was practically giving the toilet a lap dance as I scrubbed the walls behind and around?...no, you can't...neither can one put a price on the feeling of accomplishment and success as one walks through the dust-free dirt-free space and seeing the apt is cleaner than ever!
But I suppose you CAN break it down in money terms...so Dylan and I each put in about 15 hours....and also Chika help with the studio where she put in about 5 hours....so that gets us... $150 divided by 40hours of work...3.75. That's what we made on an hourly basis for terminally cleaning this place. Wow...$3.75/hr huh? I didn't realize that's what we'd get. Why didn't we calculate this out before we started cleaning??
Oh wait! I take it back. We actually got $150 AND a quarter!! After cleaning all 7 radiators in the apt coughing and sneezing away...it wasn't till the VERY last radiator I cleaned that I found a quarter!! Maybe it's not so bad after all. Oh yeah.... I also found a dust ball weighing roughly a pound, one little baby sock, and one popped kernel of popcorn!!
...Life is just full of freakin' surprises, isn't it?
We're really gonna miss this place...especially the kitchen....So, goodbye....and hello new home!
There are times when people start to collect thing they don't use or need. They just simply find the need to have things...then there comes a time when people have to move to a smaller place (Our new home!) and realize that it's time to give up certain things they have collected over the years in order to move on. That time has come to for both Dylan and I. 
Yes...we are slowing coming to terms with giving up some stuff you see here and are offering some of our proud findings at the L&G shop. As I'm posting the Dansk Flamestone pot and enamel pitcher, Catherineholm pots, Langenthal Espresso cups, and all these other cool items, I keep finding myself changing my mind about posting it!! It's hard to let go of the things that I wish I can keep but I know in the back of my mind that it's for the best to just let go of them.
Which brings up the question...why do people get so attached to inanimate objects? Is it because we subconsciously project our own personalities and life on to these things on a daily basis? Is it that we're so used to seeing it and having it around that when it's not around, it feels like something is missing? Can I possibly ever let go of my owl figurines that sit so nicely on the shelf next to some antique books? Can I live without that one plate that has served us well on the few occasional social gatherings in serving cheese, or that bowl for chips, and snack mix..then the smaller ones for dips and such...Can I let go of the rocks, sea shells, and branches that I've collected from trips to the beach and hikes on the mountain? I can't!! Why not? I don't know! There's something innate about this whole hunting and gathering process. But it's another thing to hunt and gather things that are not under the category of human survival needs. I don't have an explanation for our desire to collect things. Nonetheless, I know that's one of my NEEDS in life....which is to collect objects to create our perfect nest....with useless junk. I mean, useless AWESOME junk. There. That sounds a little bit more justified now. :D
