Our livingroom on Apartment Therapy Blog!!

So it has been a super exciting week for L&G, because not only did Jan from the Poppytalk Blog write a nice entry about our living room display, but Apartment Therapy (Chicago) also used it as an example for a display idea! I was floored when Jan passed that information to me! Thanks Jan!

There's been several comments and inquiries about the couch and here's a little info about it! The couch is a Knoll couch with a parallel bar base that Dylan scored on Craig's List (for a mere $125...they didn't know what they had!). It was originally a couch in the Seattle Public Library and was covered in hideous brown naugahide.....eew, I know. We had to get it reupholstered and chose a Knoll fabric called Alignment in blood orange. We were able to get for cheap on Ebay for only $9.00/yd. I love Ebay.....and Craig's list.
Those curious about the display grid: The grid is easy to construct with standard 2 x 2's from a local lumber store (they're actually 1.5" x 1.5"). We chose cedar because we liked the color and consistency. So here are the steps...pretty simple, but the main thing is that there aren't any visible fasteners.

• Lay out the grid's verticals according to wall stud locations maintaining asymmetric spacing. The horizontal elements are arranged according to the desired height of shelves and prints.
• Set the grid up on the floor and screw it together from the back.
• To attach to the wall, we cut 4 short blocks of 2x2 down to about 1 1/2". Screwed each of these to the wall at a stud from the end to align with the grid.
• Use L-brackets to attach the grid to the blocks...because of the height of these, the brackets are hidden from view.
• Shallow shelves (up to 8" deep) can be cut to the width of each bay and screwed down from the top with nice looking screws (screwing down is much stronger than upwards from the bottom).
• Decorate & Enjoy!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

The Wonder of Pant Hangers

I came across Poppytalk's blog entry about using pant hangers to hang prints and how it was in the summer issue of O at Home Magazine! I thought it was kinda funny since I started using pant hangers years ago just as a budget solution to hang my collection of prints. Little did I know that even Oprah thinks it's a good idea!! I feel so special...I mean, it's OOOH-PRAH we're talking about!
The way they photographed the hangers with charming old photographs was definitely more sophisticated looking than my jumbled arrangement. I love pant hangers myself and think that they are elegant, well-designed utilitarian objects. I have a whole collection of vintage hangers in all different sizes, materials and forms.
But I was super psyched to also see that Jan from Poppytalk blog wrote a nice entry about my display!! So awesome!! Thanks Jan!!
Dylan and I built this grid on a project day because our landlord is strict about what we do to the old 1905 lathe&plaster walls in our apartment. So we came up with this simple grid for us to change things up easily.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Lovely Nani Iro textile

If I have to pick one textile company I love, it would be be Nani Iro based in Osaka, Japan. Their 2008 line designed by Naomi Ito is absolutely amazing and to die for!! I mean just look at the space! This would be my version of heaven....sigh.
The line is a mix of soft hand painted watercolor-like patterns with bright bold color combinations creating a perfect result of playful and simple sophistication . They really have a knack for creating things that express a certain level of human quality, subtlety, imperfection, and beauty...But all so well-balanced of course. They're just TOO good!

Even their poka dot and line design show some slight imperfections, as if they're drawn individually making them all that much more interesting and beautiful.
Above all the greatness of their textile designs, they have examples of products, such as bags, baby bibs, baby slippers, apron, dresses, accessories, and so on. All are which created using Nani Iro fabric by everyday crafters around Japan. All the things comes with full instructions (in Japanese). This goes to show that Nani Iro fabric looks great no matter what you make with it!

I love their little company moto, which really sums up everything about what Nani Iro is about. "Kokorokara Kokorohe Tsunagatteiku Nunotachi" which means "from the heart, to the heart, tied together with cloth". Simple words, but it sure leave you feeling warm and fuzzy all over, doesn't it?

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Paintings by Leah Giberson

I'm on a beach kick since summer is approaching...slowly in Seattle. It's coming nonetheless. But I found these series of paintings by Leah Giberson. She sells prints of the original paintings on her Etsy shop!
The subject that Leah choose to paint brings a new perspective to some of the most mundane buildings and landscapes that we've all seen and have passed by without ever noticing. With nothing else around except the standing building alone in the painting, it's as if you've entered a deserted ghost town, feeling eerie yet peaceful at the same time. It reminds me much of the small tiny towns we often drive by leaving me wondering about the people that lives there and the kind of life they live.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Beach Treasures

Dylan and I went to the coast in the Olympic Peninsula couple weekend ago to go camping for one night and we got to see beautiful Rialto Beach. The beach itself is a scenic shore by the Pacific Ocean with mostly rocks that's been washed away to form perfect rounded stones of all sizes (which feels great to walk on). On top of that there are an abundance of large dramatic looking driftwoods and sea plants all over the beach that kept us busy as we searched for tons of great sea treasures. A lot of the sea plants looked almost jewelery-like. Their natural forms, colors, and textures were so inspiring and fascinating to see all together, some of which I've never even seem before! The one hanging on the drift wood would make a great necklace just as is! I also love the texture of the delicate and feathery strands of the one below. I have no idea what any of it are, but was truly amazed by the variety of sea plants we were able to find. I love to go back again to collect some more and also lug some drift woods and rocks!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Needle Felting Fun!

So I did a needle felting project finally! Lauren's needle felted bowls inspired me to use the felting supplies I had for a couple of years but never really touched till now!
But I made a pillow out of lambs wool blanket and loose wool fiber of various colors in which I used a felting needle to make the face....pretty simple process for the most part, just shape the wool and poke the needle through the surfaces up and down and the fibers weave in and out of the main piece. The challenging part was coming up with the face.As you can see up close the level of detail and craftsmanship that is required for something as complicated as the sleepy face is very difficult to achieve. It requires meticulous planning, advance color theory knowledge, multiple calculated measurements, and countless facial studies of people of every race. One may see this and think its a master piece and work of art....but I say...no, this is just something I do and have a passion for. But mostly it's because I "felt" like making it.......pause....silence.......waiting for laughter.....I FELT like it? get it? you know...since I needle "FELTed" it?
yeah...there's the laugh that I've been waiting for. Let's all LOL....in which under Dylan's definition=Laugh On Line....which I have to agree it makes sense.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Online window shopping

I picked out few dresses from Net-A-Porter, a fancy fashion site. I'm no expert on fashion by any means. Just simply know that I love these fancy dresses!

The hot pink dress by Alexander McQueen, is a great sophisticated modern sexy dress without being revealing in anyway. Katie Holms wore it well though...I have to admit...even though I don't really care for her nor Tom. But Suri is pretty cute I guess....for now.

I like both of these puffy silhouettes. Especially the giant bow on the white dress. It reminds me of the bows that I would tie...totally crooked. But they made it intentional. Smart. I love the playful elegance of it all though.

Look at THIS lovely paper dress! What a poetic piece. The texture, the ubiquitous brown paper material, the form, the way it's hung, everything about it is great and even the placement of the text and print.....PUR-CHASE!! ugh! I just totally ruined the moment and all the loveliness of this dress didn't I? How I loath the existence of Stacy London from "What not to wear"!! Why does she haunts us still!? WHY!?

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Tulip Fest 2008

After 8 years of living in Washington, I FINALLY got to go to the tulip festival up in Skagit Valley about 60miles north of Seattle. I went with my family on a perfect day and it was breathtaking to see the huge field in rows of red, yellow, orange and many more. I felt like I was in the Netherlands again for a split second. Totally worth it! This plum colored tulip is called Queen of the Night. I Love the color and the silk-like petals. There were flowers left and right, and it was amazing being surrounded by so many flowers. I'm not a flower freak, but to see such vibrant colors in such quantity and density, I couldn't help but feel the desire to run through the fields with birds and butterflies flying around while I whistle and sing with everyone holding their hands and spinning around laughing carelessly....unfortunately there were people guarding and giant signs to prevent people like me from acting on such compulsive thoughts.
It's crazy what those flowers can do with your head!!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

I Heart Everyone!

I received some great neat gifts from people for my birthday awhile ago and forgot to mention it. There's a previous post about other great gifts I've received as well. Sorry everyone! But just wanted to let y'all know that I really am thankful for all the great lovely gifts!! I LOVE THEM ALL! (^.^)

Here's where they live in my home, now....
My first Heath ceramic from Terri! I was totally psyched to get this as a gift, since I've always wanted something from Heath Ceramics. I especially love their series of bud vases, it's such a soft humble form that feels very warm and satisfying.
Quirky creature from Terri. I cracked up when I saw this funny thing! it's so cute! I don't know what's front or back...but that's what cute about it, it could go either way. the brown thing could be a nose or a tail!Tea towels from Chika. I was also super psyched about these since I've been eying on these forever! These are designed and made by Skinny La Minx , all the way from South Africa. The designs are charming and beautiful. Close up of the beautiful printed towels. 100% cotton and made in South Africa.
Needle felted bowls handmade by Lauren. Aren't they sweet? I didn't know you can needle felt things like that! I wanna have a felting party now! who's in!?
Also made by Lauren are these sweet fabric covered tacks. I love the colors and the patterns. Those will definitely be useful for my studio, can't wait to use them!

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Postage Stamps

I was browsing once again and found this Japanese site called, Turtle Rattel Factory, selling vintage postage stamps from Japan, Russia, Denmark, France, and few other European countries. They have a collection of all sorts of playful and colorful cute stamps! I love vintage stamp designs, and these ones just melts my heart looking at each one of them....sigh.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Polaroid love

Dylan recently found this classic Polaroid SX-70 camera at the thrift store, a super great find, since it's such a modern and sleek design for it's time.
This was the model that the Eames made a commercial for Polaroid. It's a great instructional film with indepth information about how it works and the wonder of Polaroid cameras. Also what's neat is that some of photos in the film are actually taken by Ray Eames.
We've all heard about how Polaroid is stopping the production of Polaroid film and switching to digital....which is seriously unfortunate considering it has created a huge culture in photography and art.

I found some of these Polaroid photos by Jen. They remind me of Ray's photos. I really like these playful and coloful arrangement of everyday objects and collections. Click on photos to link to her flikr site. She has quite a collection of Polaroid photos, all are which beautiful and well framed. They feel so calm and peaceful...
This particular series of photos is from a photographer, Mark-Steffen Gowecke, who started a project called, Polapola Project taking Polaroid photos with the previously taken photo, and with another one, and another one and it goes on....really neat!

There's tons of great Polaroid blogs with people sharing the same passion for this classic product. Check out few of these: everyday Polaroid, My Polaroid Blog, and Save the Polaroid.
I really hope that Polaroid can have a success story like the Japanese Gocco Printer!! Let's save Polaroid!!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Uh-mazing Cuban poster designs

I was just browsing around on the internet and somehow found this Ebay store, called Home of the Cuban Posters, with tons of beautiful and striking Cuban movie poster designs for sale. I'm in love with all the bright bold colors and playful abstract interpretations of the movies. They're reproductions, but nonetheless they would still look amazing framed hanging around the house. Truly inspiring to see all together.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Green check list

Saw this on the style-files blog. Presented by Wire & Twine in an easy, simple to read format. It was fun to read and checked off the things from the lis. It mentioned buying second-hand stuff! which I feel good about it since I'm buying and selling second hand stuff! (I'm currently patting my own back right now...good Jean...good)

I'm gonna try to do all 50 things on the list!!

There are few things that werent' on the list, which I thought is also important. Such as:

*Bring your own containers to reasturants for take out food. (find containers that would fit the dishes you want, they're usually pretty cool about it)

*Put filled bottles in toilet tank to use less water. (It fills up space which uses less water)

*Recycle batteries and ink catridges.

*Have a picnic with NON-DISPOSABLE dishes! (versus picnic with a marker that's in the list. It feels more special with a cute picnic basket, your own dishes, cups, and cutlery that doesn't break in half when you try to cut stuff with it.)

*Reuse shoe boxes or tin containers (cover shoe boxes or tin containers in nice looking paper or fabric and you got yourselves some awesome looking boxes that you can display AND good for organization!)

*Get things repaired versus throwing them away. (It just takes a little time to find a place that'll repair your shoes, furniture, camera....etc. If it cost too much to repair, sell it! you'd be surprised how many people buys as-is stuff on ebay for parts!)

that's all I've got for now. If anyone has any other good tips feel free to share it!

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Book sculptures by Nicholas Jones

Saw this on The Design Files blog interviewing Nicholas Jones, a book artist who creates sculptural forms simply from....well, books.
Recently I've been obsessed with book/paper artist such as Su Blackwell who made an amazing animation out of paper. It's neat how a medium so simple that's used in our daily can transform into something visually striking and interesting in so many levels.
Nicholas' approach is fairly simple, but I enjoy his playfulness with colors, texture and various silhouettes.
Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

More yummy stuff

My parents is here visiting Seattle for the past couple of weeks, and so what do you do when parents are here? EAT! as if I don't do that enough...but nonetheless, it's an activity that everyone can enjoy. :)
I took my parents to Bottega Italiana, on First Ave between Pine st and Union st, a great Italian Gelato cafe right next to the Pike Place Market downtown. Their handmade getlati with fresh fruit taste absolutely amazing. Using the finest fresh ingredients, they don't use any additional colors, flavors, or preservatives in their products, which is great!
It's even better than some of the ones I had in Italy! (I was there for couple of months and I practically ate gelato almost everyday...and there were definitely some not-so-good gelati, believe it or not!)
You must be aware of the suspiciously bright and colorful gelati....I know, they look pretty and tempting, but it's just filled with food coloring and artificial flavors. eck!
You can usually tell when you see good gelato, the color isn't too bright and it should look silky and creamy versus the more icy sorbet look. Like the pineapple gelato in the center, it's just a soft creamy yellow tint to it, not a bright neon yellow that blinds your eyes!
My favorite flavors this time was the melon and mango gelato, it was the perfect combination of sweet and sour flavor together making it so refreshing and light. They change their flavors around occasionally, and few months ago I had their fig and pistachio flavored gelato, which was absolutely delicious, too!
Mi amore gelati!
Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Homemade Mochi, only 5 Minutes!

I stopped by Uwajimaya the other day and had to get some ingredients to make some Mochi with Kinako powder (soy bean powder...taste like light peanut powder). I've never made it from scratch before. For some reason I had it in my head that it's difficult to make, since I've always believed that Japanese treats is an art form itself, which it is....But I found that just making mochi is actually really simple! So simple that I made a bunch in only 5 minutes! I'm not kidding!
I found this mochi recipe where you just mix 1 part water, 1 part rice flour (Mochiko), and 1/4 cup sugar. Mix it up and heat it up in the microwave for 4 minutes. I don't usually cook things in the microwave, but this turned out great! After heating it, let the mochi cool to the point where you can handle it, then roll it up and cover it in some kinako powder. Then I drizzled the top with a some sweetened soy paste (sugar + soy paste) and TA-DA! DONE!
It's also easy to change the flavor by adding some seaweed powder, or maccha powder into the mix if you like them.
Next time I'm going to challenge myself to wrap some red bean paste in the mochi and even possibly some cute mochi rabbits, too!
Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Scandinavian Food!

There's this great little Scandinavian grocery/gift shop in Ballard that I've been wanting to go forever!! I always go either on days when they're closed or right as they're locking to door up!
So finally this last Thursday I happened to be in Ballard running some errands, so I made sure that I had enough time to check out Olsen's Scandinavian Foods for some cultural exploration.
Their deli looked amazing!! As you can see they have hand stuffed sausages of all kind, meatballs, fishcakes, smoked salmon, and even pickled herring! Actually you can see at the very right side of the glass case, they have fresh lingoberry jam, which I got a container of it. Of course I didn't forget to get some Swedish pancake mix to make some good old Swedish breakfast! MMM!!
I always love their packaging! So colorful and fun.
I love the Dala horse figures! Aren't they adorable?!!
I 'll be going back to try their deli food soon!
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

My Sister, Yilin's, 08' Spring/Summer Fashion Show

Last Saturday, April 12th, my older sister, Yilin had her first fashion show at the New York Fashion Academy (NYFA) where she's been studying fashion design for the past year and a half. It's a small school located in the heart of Ballard, Seattle. Not sure why they used 'New York' as their school name, but nonetheless its a fashion academy.
Yilin worked extremely hard for the past 6-7 months, designing and making clothes, recruiting models, photographers, makeup artist, hair stylist, assistance, and at the same time helping to coordinate and organize the fashion show!
I got to help her out here and there, did some brainstorming, gave some feedback, worked on her brand, went material shopping...and not to mention multiple shoe shopping trips. Overall it was super exciting to be part of it and I defiantly had a lot of fun helping her out.
I was totally impressed with the result and proud to see how creative her designs are.
You can see a low res clip of Yilin's new 2008 spring/summer line, Nouevelle, exhibiting 8 finished design pieces here.
Also you can view more photos taken by Darien So of the runway shots to get a better look of her entire collection! They're really wonderful, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her sister!!
You can get in touch with Yilin at nouvelle-design.com
I'm so proud of her!....tear.
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Finally!! Glazed pieces!

Finally! here they are, all glazed and done! As you can see we didn't take too many risks in terms of experimenting with glazes. So we played it safe and went with white, black, yellow, and some oranges. All the white pieces are my miniature form studies. I threw them all on a hump of clay and each are about 2.5"-3" tall. It was great way to practice making various forms in a short amount of time. This was the extent of my experimentation using underglaze. Black bubbles.
This is the yellow and white combo by Dylan. My first piece in use....and you guessed it! It's a planter! If it's not a vase or a bowl, it's going to be a planter. The color and shape reminds me of an orange...with a crazy stem.
This is one of the letter stamp piece with a clear glaze. I made some coasters some with letters and some with numbers. All the pieces can be seen here on Flickr.
After taking the ceramics class, it made me really want to have my own ceramics studio and just make things all day. It's so gratifying to see and feel the finished piece in your hand. Hopefully I can make this happen before I retire!
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

Our 4 year anniversary weekend

Dylan and I just had our 4 year anniversary as an unmarried couple. We planned a little getaway last weekend and stayed in an yurt at Cape Disappointment, WA (Formerly known as Fort Canby). The name is deceiving, because it's far from disappointing! It was actually a really beautiful and relaxing state park off the southern west coast of Washington that's close to beaches and couple of small wacky towns. We decided to stay in a cozy and convenient yurt while still got to have our campfire dinner. It was the best of both worlds. It was PERFECT!
Our first stop was at this wacky place called Marsh's Free Museum in Long Beach, WA. Its' a store/museum filled with cheesy beach themed trinkets and novelty toys plus tons of mounted animal heads all over the walls AND some on the ceiling!
After walking around Long Beach, we headed back to our campsite and built a fire while sipping on some wine and cooked ourselves a gourmet dinner. We made garlic dill pork chops with roasted butter asparagus and squash, baked potato, and tossed salad. Food just tastes so much better cooked over the fire....I wonder if it's because of the charcoal....
Then, for dessert...it was homemade roasted coco marshmallow. We tried one of Martha's recipes for marshmallows, and it was surprisingly easy and fun to make....not to mention that it tasted soooo much better than store bought ones! The recipe is just for making plain ones, but we improvised and added 2 tablespoons of unsweetened coco powder in the mix, and then after it was set, we rolled it in 1/2 powder sugar 1/2 coco powder mix. Sitting by the warm fire, drinking wine, roasting and eating homemade marshmallows....we, were in heaven.
The following day, we woke up with the campsite covered in some snow. It was such an unexpected surprise. I was just totally glad that we stayed in a yurt versus a tent, which we saw some people stayed in them. Not sure if they froze to death or not, but I know we would of!
For breakfast, we then cheated and plugged in our toaster oven and baked ourselves Croque Madames for breakfast. Sorry for all the real hardcore campers out there...I know we put camping to shame, but it was too easy! 5 minutes to prep and 15 minuets to bake type of easy. :P
We then went out to the beach and saw some snow still remained after the sun came out. I've never seen a beach with snow on it, it was quite a sight!
We then headed to the North Head Lighthouse close by the park. It was built in 1896 and it's a working lighthouse. We climbed up 90 some steps and got to see the amazing coast line and it was gorgeous..... Now I have this urge to start collecting lighthouses and decorate my entire house with a beach theme...lighthouses, American flags, shells and dolphins....oh! I forgot, and mermaids, too. Gotta have that.
These beautiful sexy mermaids were at Marsh's Free Museum.... I should go back and get them....They'll be perfect for what I'm thinking of in our apartment.
So, in conclusion, Cape Disappointment was anything but disappointing. Not to mention that we saw a mummified half man half alligator named Jack at the museum, the worlds biggest frying pan, a cafe called Scrappaccino, a stuffed cat, AND this!!
We took too many photos, so the rest of the photos of the store and of everything else can be seen here.
ENJOY!
-Jean

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious