Bear with me for a moment as I try to explain a bit about this chair. Most of the information about it is in French, but I think I get the gist of it.
It’s a new release from French designer Eric Jourdan – who, among other things, has a big collection coming out in January that he created with Ligne Roset. Eric works with the firm Domeau & Pérès which gets a lot of commissions to design for the aviation and aeronautics industries – which was a big inspiration for this interesting creation.
This being named The Hampton’s Chair by Jourdan – you clearly see the classic Hamptons-esque lines set off by the deck like Red Cedar planking. The original chair was actually designed for an upscale golf club here in the US, but Domeau & Pérès wanted to offer a version of the design to the general public as well.
With this chair, Jourdan wanted to evoke the utilitarian aspects of Enzo Mari’s Autoprogettazione collection released in the 1970’s. This was a group of designs that were conceptualized as DYI project kits that could be built using everyday materials and tools. Although (to me at least) it seems The Hampton’s Chair has a distinct Summery spirit about it, I can see it in a wide array of settings year round.
This is a little delight perfect for a Fall weekend that you should try. It’s almost ridiculously easy and takes just a few ingredients. If you want to jazz it up you can add a bit of Vanilla or Almond extract to the egg mixture.
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Maybe we should consider Thanksgiving “pre-Christmas” this year as retailers are really going all out with early shopping suggestions. They always do but this year it feels like everyone is very intent on making up for lost ground. The catalogs are coming in droves and the emails are pretty overwhelming already. Because I get so much of it I unfortunately have to dump-truck most of it without really looking in order to maintain some level of sanity.
But this morning I got an email from British based Pale & Interesting that stopped my finger from hitting the delete button cold. It was their November newsletter, which I hadn’t signed up for – but that’s really beside the point.
I guess what really grabbed me was the quality of the photos they chose to include – just three of them, but the editorial styling against a very clean and simple layout made me click over immediately. Of course I looked through each and every section of the website. Below are just a few of the pretty pictures I found. I can’t be the only one that thinks these shots are really swoon worthy – they sell sets of cards featuring photos of their products. Unfortunately I don’t think P & I sells in the US but I’m still a big fan!
This is the first official merge day of the old bloomacious.com and the new Bloomacious Digs. As such we’ve moved off our old platform at Typepad and have come over here to Wordpress.org which offers an ever expanding universe of design and function options. In the move I had to disassemble the domain mapping for the old site, in order to forward to this new spot, which of course broke a lot of links. If you’ve followed one and wound up here – note that I’ll be working to move some of the more popular posts from the old site over to this one. But my apologies for the inconvenience in the meantime.
This new blog has a reinvigorated focus on design – interiors, architecture, products, and trends. Also food, recipes, and housekeeping tips that crop up that seem interesting. Hope you like!
Most of the beauty and fashion stories and ideas will be found on our network at Bloomacious Cafe.
I’ve been to plenty of antique shops over the years – and have come across enough of those hand crocheted doilies to know that they were once really chic. While in many ways they may represent grandmotherly charm more than style, lately designers have been incorporating the vintage look into their work in an entirely fresh way.
Above, Pure Designs has reinvigorated embroidery to embody a whole new, completely contemporary look. Here on the Hazel Setee set against a deep blue fabric it has that wonderful vintage meets post modern feel. Below, RazorTooth has a wide array of lacy laser-cut cascading panels that can be used as room dividers, curtains, or anywhere you need a bit of a screen.
Below Arktura has created the feel of lace or even perhaps macrame with their Hive Bench (which is also a coffee table). Set against bright orange it sets quite an edgy mood. Bottom is the Dahlia Chair from Lumisource which features ornate laser etched foliage – shown here in green.
I picked up the September/October issue of Design New England this evening and, as always, really enjoyed the rustic sophistication of the homes the editors chose to feature.
This home is the cover story – owned and renovated by lighting designer Craig Roberts – the house is near Dorset Vermont.
Roberts completely gutted and renovated this home – the result is a lovely spot which has a rich but light air. I picked out a few shots from the feature – to see more check out the online version of the magazine. These photos are by the very talented architectural photographer Eric Roth.
I’ll warn you in advance ~ this is not a sexy story.
I’ve been having trouble with my laundry lately – well for one I haven’t really done it – too busy. I’ve gathered enough clothing, sheets and towels that I can literally amass an impressive pile before I actually run out of things and have to start a load. That coupled with the fact that I’m not a housework buff (Monica on Friends would find me perplexing) makes the act of doing laundry a fairly infrequent happinstance.
The other issue is that my dryer – which is an LG Tramm (about 3 years old) has been taking longer and longer to dry the clothes. It heats them quite efficiently, and last night it actually baked them dry over the span of 5 hours. Over the past few weeks now, thinking back, linens and quilts have been less fluffy feeling and towels have had a tendency to go sour fairly quickly.
I cleaned out the lint trap very thoroughly with a vacuum, and when that didn’t work stomped the floor a few times, then cursed the appliance.
This morning I made a trip to the basement – my least favorite place in this house (there are a lot of strange critters down there) – and checked out the exhaust duct.
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After this project, I must say I have a new appreciation for the effort that goes into taking appealing photos of bread. I have a great cookbook called Frida’s Fiestas written by Frida Kahlo’s stepdaughter (from Diego Rivera) that’s full of colorful photos, recipes and stories about the artist.
As you can imagine, The Day of The Dead is a big portion of this book, so I’ve been really looking forward to featuring one of the recipes from that section for Dead Man’s Bread.
I’ve been working on this recipe for a week now – my first batch of bread was disappointingly heavy and dry – but I was so intent on making this work that I went through a few revolutions of the recipe and came up with a final result that is really delightful. It’s a sweet, filling bread that I think is a great alternative to cupcakes and candy or even pastries. It’s absolutely fabulous with cider, coffee or tea.
I’ve also tried various versions of these photos – some inside, some outside. Some with props, some on white, on cutting boards – you name it. I think at the end of the day the shots of the dough are the most interesting – they look like odd little sculptures. The design on the top is meant to remind of bones – they also look like snakes to me.
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