If you’re at all a fan of the Golden Girls you’ll recall Stan Zbornak, ex-hubbie of main character Dorothy, was a purveyor of novelties. I’m pretty sure Marc Cherry (the same guy who created Desperate Housewives) and the creators of the show concocted this career for utter laughs. Who can forget the time Stan made uber $$ on a potato opener.
I have a feeling Stan would have loved the A + R store in Los Angeles. I’ve come across this spot online and in person a number of times and am always amused by the part genius, part kitch concept behind many of the items they carry. Apartment Therapy interviewed Andy and Rose, the duo behind the name, a few years back – check out their chat here.
Two items that caught my eye most recently are these inventive products for flowers and plants. The first is The Sky Planter – which displays your plants hanging from the ceiling upside down.
Designer Patrick Morris created this employing a locking disc to hold both soil and your unsuspecting plant in place. A reservoir system gradually hydrates the roots, somehow not dripping water on the floor. This is a great sight gag for sure, although I have such difficulty keeping orchids happy (whoever said they thrive on neglect must have lived in a rain forest is all I have to say) I wonder how well the plants do in the long run. I’m thinking this is best for herbs and probably ferns would handle this. Tomatoes also seem to love this type of system.
The second is this collection of rubber vases. I’ve been using silcone baking pans for muffins and mini quiches lately and have become quite a fan of the material. A cute product and what a great way to childproof your floral arrangements!
More than just the softness of the vases, I think the color is really fun. These would look great in a light toned room by tossing in a great punch of turquoise, red, or any of the other primary shades these come in.
My niece and nephew sent me these flowers last week – so sculptural and lovely I just had to take a few shots of them. Calalilies, lavender and pink roses – perfect!
I was paging through the March House Beautiful with all it’s beautiful blue rooms this morning just before I received an email from Paris about this cool “Ottoman” from Ligne Roset. I love it’s powdery soft blue matched with exquisite geometry – I’d would also love to see it in an installation to get a feel for the context of the design.
Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance designed the” Ottoman” – in the conception of the piece he revisits an Orient that has echoes in his own past – he once lived for a year in a fisherman’s hut on the beach at Rabat. Initially designed for a hotel in Marrakesh, the traditional motif is thrown into relief by a faceted effect that increases the comfort of the seat and accentuates the strong visual appeal.
Remember in olden times when taking great shots of flowers, your kids, your dogs, designer showcase houses, or your folks, required copious lugging and planning? I still have my gorgeous old cameras around – the ones that use the big format film that came on the gigantic rolls that had to be carefully loaded and re-spooled. I also remember missing tons of shots at conventions, parks, shopping, the streets of New York, store windows, because I didn’t want to carry a heavy camera bag with me.
New innovations have spawned an entire culture of photo hobbyists who thrive on grabbing unexpected photo opps on the fly and pushing them up to Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous, Facebook, Picasa, FriendFeed, and Twitter all in one action for their friends and family to enjoy.
I love this collection of goodies above – the Shootsac – a super cute message style camera and lens toter that molds to your body, weighs just a few ounces, and carries the goods you need to not miss a shot. Also has tons of covers so you can change the look with your mood or event.
The Telephoto Lens for iPhone is a true stroke of genius – slide your phone in and grab those shots from a distance (think birds!)
This Trick Camera lens for iPhone looks like a riot as well – wide angle, sparkle, kaleidoscope, heart or sunburst – take your pick at $8 how can you miss?
And how can we not celebrate our love of the old Polaroid Camera with this gorgeous ceramic piece from Yellow Owl Workshop? It’s creamy good natured feel will warm any room or office.
I woke up this morning to a light layer of snow that blanketed my garden and softened the light (below). And while that darned groundhog saw his shadow yesterday, I can’t help dreaming about planting my garden this year.
The stack of gardening magazines is really piling up already – I can’t seem to resist them every time I go to the store. I’ve been studying Fine Gardening, and the many Better Homes & Gardens SIP’s each morning. I plan to populate the area above (see green arrow) with flowers of all kinds – it gets lots of sun and has very rich, well drained soil so things grow splendidly. I already have several roses, and peonies – which bloom amazingly as long as the moles keep out of them.
Of course, I’ll confess that last year I let more than my share of really obnoxious weeds take over – but let’s just let bygones be bygones already. I have a new area that I’ve been filled in for the past 18 months that will make a great spot for veggies – all fenced in and everything.
Clearly I’ll need to plant all this from seed – and I’ve found lots of tips and ideas that I’ll get started on in a few weeks.
But my mind at the moment is on bulbs – since those I can see flower right away thanks to a little gentle forcing. I went out last week and picked up an array of hyacinths in pinks and blues and planted them in pots outside and inside.
The planters outside – here’s one of a pair of rusty urns – will be awhile, but my indoor bulbs are coming along really well.
I have the big pot below, replanted the urn after the paperwhites were spent, and scattered little pots and vases like the one above – full of gorgeous blossoms-to-be all over the house. I just the jewel color and bright scent of the blooms when they come up.
In BH&G’s Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living (on stands now) I found this great idea for hyacinth vases that I think look really neat. My forsythia is quite a ways off, but in warmer parts of the country I’m sure they can put this idea to good use right away. Just grab some quilted jelly jars, or plain old Bell jars, and put in a bulb, and a few sprigs of forsythia and perhaps some other twigs and tie them like a tepee with raffia or a brown twistie. I think this is adorable and what a wonderful Valentine’s gift this would make coupled with a hand written note or poem.
On the subject of Valentines I was also reading the SF Chronicle online this morning and found this great Garden Bon Bon gift set that looks really great – these were created by a landscape architect in Seattle named Anne Dowell and are actually seed balls mixed with clay and compost and decorated with cinnamon, coffee and turmeric (natural pesticides). Each box has eight bonbons in either an Italian Herb Selection with basil, parsley, chive and thyme, or an Herbal Tea Selection with lemon balm, chamomile, borage and stinging nettle. More info here>>
Don’t miss the fun on our other blog CarrieLeber.com ~ OK most of the fun is pretty much had by us at LMG as we shoot and describe products from our roster of very cool clients. And as creative people it really is fun – to develop ideas, and come up with creative public relations solutions for the design and lifestyle firms we represent. We also include media clips, fun websites and photos, and write ups of some of our favorite blogs, websites, magazines, and TV shows. Have a design oriented firm that needs a marketing and PR boost? Be sure to check us out!
