Tooting my horn

Yesterday was luck and fate wrapped in a box and delivered to my desk. I was looking for places to stay in Barcelona online for our holiday and I stumbled upon a price drop for our cabin 'rating' on our cruise portion -- and called up my cruise agent, stat! The original price I found was still the same that we had paid before (bad memory for me), but by the time our agent called us back (around 6pm) the price had dropped $300 EACH and we managed to scoop that up!

Just to show how much these prices seem to jump up and down, I looked on the cruise line website before bed and it was back up $310. Crazy!

Good packaging makes my day

This honey jar for Waitrose is smart and pretty. I'm really going to have to figure out how to pack light for October now.
via the dieline

Formal dinner

Who says clean can't be formal?
via Designboom

Deluxe cupcakes

I always love seeing how people use laser diecutting, and this idea of cupcake wrappers looks too nice to eat!
via Oh Joy!

Bookshelves

In our next house I'm dreaming of an area completely for books. (I currently colour-code our collection, which drives Trevor mad but looks so much better than having them muddled in by author.)

This reminds me of a beehive of books.
Love the look of this, but you have to have pretty books to make it work. A bunch of Marvel graphic novels (Trevor) and chick-lit books (me) might not make this look so domestic-chic.
A happy medium? Hide all your goodies in the rafters...
I love this to death. This is my room of book heaven, and book hell for Trevor. *muahahahahaaa* (Evil rubbing of hands together.)
Now you'll just have to reaaaaach a little to get to the top books.
A hallway might be convenient for walking-by grab and go's.via the nestmaker,WebUrbanist,freshome

Etsy goodness

Modica Design puts together some jewelery courtesy of wood and resin.

Etsy goodness

I came across OIive yesterday and was really taken by the handmade pillows.

A new definition of tea lights?

Sure you can get them in bags of 10,000 at Ikea, but these take lighting to a new level. Too cool for school these are.
via domestic construction

Found objects, fine art

I love the way these random items create shapes on the wall. I'm thinking of doing something like this myself, but with vintage letters from signs (that's a few weeks on eBay and then some...).

Good inspiration though!
via Daily Poetics

Slow Monday

Well, no completely slow with all the work drama I have going on at the moment, but slow mentally! We were busy this weekend, and yes, I did manage to clean the siding on the house (a few failed attempts and then I managed to find a scrubbing brush solution that worked!), mowed the lawn, cleaned all the windows I could reach, pruned and cleaned up the garden, and Trevor went wild putting up more moulding, a hand rail to the basement, putting up closet doors, installing laundry room cupboards... *whew* It was a weekend. And we plan on doing more than that this coming long weekend.

But the big drumroll is...we can now officially call in for a FINAL INSPECTION! Almost a full year ago we were starting, and now we will be close to taking down the horrible neon permit sign on our front window. Hurrah! There's still a lot of painting, filling and caulking to be done, but that's just the icing on the cake right?

Weekend warrior (hopefully)

Well, it's Friday again (hurrah!). It seemed like a short week -- probably because I'm used to working 6 day weeks the last little while. Big plans are afoot here for the next two days, with reno-mania-mania setting in. My plans are to hop on a very high ladder and attempt to clean the siding of the house and gutters (we'll see about how high I really get, confidence is brimming at this point...), and Trevor is going to finish the bathroom in the basement and put up the railing for the stairs. (And maybe even start on the laundry room? hint...hint...)

I figure it makes sense to tackle the outside jobs here while the weather is nice and not scorching hot. Painting inside a 'schweaty' house is never fun, nor a good idea (paint that dries way too fast).

We've also been pondering a dining room table (our house lacks one after ridding it of a horrific wicker and fabric hand-me-down) and our choices are now:

From Pier 1:

From Crate + Barrel (with customs charges...worth it? I don't know.):

I'm leaning towards the Pier 1 choice, it's got a darker stain and a nice wood grain on the table top, and it has an extra leaf that can extend it out for 6 people to sit at. We would keep it as a square though, as our dining area is teenie. (Trevor's vote might go towards this one as well, because the square shape 'defines his eating space'...LOL!)

Now to find chairs...

Do not WANT.

Sometimes sharing sucks.

Sponge chair

There's something very funky about the combination of squashy sliced sponges against the slick chrome of this chair. Kind of makes me want to grab it and squeeeeeze it. (And I wonder how handy this chair would be for spills...)
Via Freshome

I'm almost speechless...

...but not quite. I stumbled upon the news of a Jamie Oliver video game this morning. (Yes, I had to re-read that sentence as well as it doesn't seem right.) Here's the premise behind it:

The game will include a series of real-time virtual challenges that involve real-life chopping, stirring, and plating; recipe cook-offs with other players; and a timed competition against the clock. All of this will take place in three-dimensional kitchen settings with measures of quality and taste.

The game will feature 100 original Jamie Oliver recipes such as Italian Tomato and Bread Salad, Pea and Goat Cheese Risotto and Mrs. Oliver’s Chocolate Pudding - all accompanied by real-life photographs by David Loftus who has worked on most of Jamie’s cookbooks, space for 100 of your own recipes, a shopping list mode, and competitive cooking game mode.

And here's some screen shots of the game if you're still having trouble wrapping your head around it:
Call me crazy (crazy), but I think I might stick with the Jamie Oliver cookbooks!

I smell back to school

Yes, I know it's still July, but I can't be the only person who has seen the plethora of school supplies marching back into the stores. Target is my favorite cheapie place to hit up for all sorts of things, but their school supply section is fun to walk through (and score a few items for the office!). I've noticed this year that backpacks have made some big advancements from the design of them through to function (rolling backpacks, I would have loved one of those!). Here's a few I saw on the Target site:

Hello Kitty, more like, 'Hello School!'.Punk rocker chic, why yes, I'd like to store my math books in that.I imagine that I could make this bag go as fast as it looks.

Weekend goodness

Yes, I can really call it 'goodness' this time because we both had TWO WHOLE DAYS OFF! It was exciting around here, and we made the most of it. We booked one night down in Tulalip at the fancy schmancy hotel (it's a casino too, but we just watched people lose their money). It was deluxe! Here's a few photos of the room (and imagine the smell of new carpet...snifffff...ahhhhhh):

We hit up our favorite shopping area near the university in Seattle the next day and oooh'd and ahhhh'd at the goodies at Crate + Barrel, and ate our way through the sushi at Blue C. Delish!(Evidence of our lunch.)

Oh to still be on weekend time...

Lilies in the garden

They were late in blooming this year, but there were a lot to look at (love those reproducing bulbs!).

Flickr group: s t i l l

This group gathers photographs of simple, everyday objects.

Hiatus?

I haven't been around for a few days due to work at the moment. It's dictating my life at the moment and tells me when I get to blog, eat, clean, sleep, if I get a weekend or not (not, for the most part). It's wearing and tiring dealing with hairy deadlines, crazy amounts of revisions, and printers halfway around the world (at the moment I'm waiting on an email from Australia before I can go to bed). Yesterday I thought my mind couldn't take in anymore information, it was too full of other people's details to bother with things that I had to do. Brain saturation, that's what I'll call it.

At this point, I don't really know when things are going to let up. They seem to just stack and back up, and now I'm starting to worry about our big vacation in October where I get to jump ship for a month (or if the ship I'm on will sink before then...lol, ponder that thought!). Thinking a few months ahead at this point is just nerve-wracking, so I'm trying to gently poke people into action to get things done in a timely* manner.

*Client speak for a polite term to get their asses in gear.

Due to all of the above (and imminent meltdowns in my brain) posting to the blog may be spotty for a while. I will, however, leave you with a small shred of evidence that I do (with permission) occasionally have a life outside my office:

I would go blind trying to make this

Frances Trombly has some serious patience. She hand-stitches replicas of her old receipts. Crazy...but very cool!
via Creativadoration and Designers' Block UK

The popsicle of summer

Funny photo via drp's photostream.