A Little Valentine's Candy

The Deathcake Royal via Not Martha

Decorating with Red via Decor8

A glitzier, sexier light switch via Silk Felt Soil

Neon Furniture in New York Magazine

In their "Blogging New York Magazine" post, Apartment Therapy touches on the new trend towards extreme neon colors in clothing, furniture, and home accessories. I hate to keep beating the Mod drum, but all signs are pointing to "yes."

Amazing Mod-Print Sofas from Anthropologie

Here are two very bold, very Mod sofas from Anthropologie's new collection. I love the large-scale pattern and the mix of black, white and green on the ditte sofa. The fabric is a modern take on the naturalist trend by Marimekko.

The black and white milo chesterfield is also upholstered in a Marimekko print. The sofa style is a little Victorian, but the take is definitively modern.

Via Design Sponge.

Inside the Home of Artist Amy Ruppel

This photo of artist Amy Ruppel's from Design*Sponge tugged at my heart strings. Notice the amazing wood paneling on her walls. My grandfather, an ornamental iron smith, used a similar paneling in the retirement home he built from scratch near Austin, Texas. He achieved this look by taking sheets of wood and having them sand-blasted until the grain stood out in relief. He then rubbed the panels with a silvery paint. The look is both rustic and elegant. I have never seen this style outside his retirement cabin. What a beautiful way to bring the warmth of wood into the home.

Magazine Hoarders Rejoice

I love to leave my magazines out. I like to flip through them during commercials, while I'm cooking, before bed, but I don't want to leave them to clutter the table tops. Here is an unusually attractive solution ($595-$695) from In House Furniture via Design Milk.

Table-topped Beasties

I'm checking out new-to-me blogs today. It's been a while since I've had time to read much online (winter is the busy season at my office).

I just found a post about these amazing animal tables from Mobilier de Compagnie on the Home Rejuvenation Blog. I will definitely be checking back regularly. What a great find.

A Few More Cuckoos

Tobias Reishle's sleek take on the cuckoo, $375 at momastore.org.

Pascal Tarabay's Cuckoo Clock Chromium, $350 at Conranusa.com.

Trends: Cuckoo Clocks

I wouldn't have believed that cuckoo clocks could make a comeback, but over the last few months, they have begun popping up in decorator magazines. Whenever I picture a cuckoo clock, I picture it in a dark living room with wood paneling and chintz sofas, but interior designers are now pairing these over-the-top clocks with sparse modern interiors as centerpieces.

To the left is Fred Flare's oh-so-modern silver take on the cuckoo. $14 at FredFlare.com.

Below is the "Three Birds" clock from River City Clocks, as featured in the March issue of House and Garden. $410 at RiverCityCuckooClocks.com.

Either would make an amazing center piece in an otherwise minimal room.

Mid-Century Modern Wall Hanings

More signs of a shift towards mid-century design: CeLee at Dress Your Nest recently posted about Textile Arts, a company that helps you to create wall art from the works of fabric designers like Marimekko.

CeLee's blog also has a great sidebar feature called "Nest Essentials," which looks to be ab ongoing list of great items to have around your home in case of decorating emergency.

A Better Dish Rack

When we were first married, my husband and I lived for a year in an 800 sqft 1920s apartment with no dishwasher. In a sprawling city like Dallas, a life sans-dishwasher is relatively unusual and a home built in 1920 is considered quite old.

We had about 2 feet of counter top in that kitchen, half of which was perpetually occupied by a dish rack. I only wish we had seen this little gem back then. Not only is it space-efficient, it's actually attractive as well.

Via Product Dose.

Measurement Conversions

Apartment Therapy's blog, The Kitchen, lists a few tools for making quick and accurate conversions in the kitchen. When I'm in the habit of halving or doubling a recipe, I like to rewrite it on a card with the converted amounts or to simply scratch out and write-over the measurements in my cook book. I found that cooking and calculating are not tasks I can tackle in tandem.

Sweet Bird Doorbell

A very fun alternative to the plain-jane doorbell via Design*Sponge.

Miffed About Muffins

I didn't have time to bake my own muffins this weekend, so I made a quick trip to the local Whole Foods to pick up a box from their bakery yesterday afternoon. I have to admit, this is mostly my fault for not checking the label, but when I went to unwrap the muffins this morning I noticed each one has 22 grams of fat, 2 grams of which are trans-fat!

I'm a healthy person, but by no means a big dieter. Sure I don't eat a lot of meat and I don't eat fast food, but I have a well-indulged sweet-tooth and an addiction to fine cheese. That said, there is just no way I'm starting my morning off with a BRAN muffin that has 22 grams of fat. How is that even possible? Is there a stick of butter in there?

Whole Foods isn't the only offender (I'm talking to you Starbucks). I have never found a store-bought low-fat muffin that tastes like food, and anything not marked low-fat is somehow more calorie-dense than a piece of chocolate mousse cake.

Where are the good low-fat muffins? They have to exist outside of our private kitchens. If anyone has a tip on where to get decent low-fat muffins (made with real ingredients, not chemicals) in Dallas, please let me know. And if you have great recipes, please share and I will post them.

Dirty, PrettyThings

Swat the crap out of flies with yet another cute fly swatter. If you live in the South, it won't be too long before you'll be needing one of these again. It only takes about one day for those pests to hatch back out. Read more about the Jing Fly Swatter at Shakinstyle.com.

Target Site Table Round-up

I spent a little time today searching Target.com for end tables. I didn't find what I was looking for (which is inexpensive white lacquer end tables), but they did have some really great things. I adore Target, but find their site a little hard to sift through with so many choices and no truly effective way to sort through them to the things you want. So here is the best of what I found:

Zig Zag Table, $239.99 at Target.com.


Kona Siennah Side Table, $199.99 at Target.com

The Offi Martini Table, $99.99 at Target.com.

The Light Block Table, $299.99 at Target.com.

I'm not too fond of how this was photographed, but the piece is so simple and functional, and available in many colors. The Stockholm Cylinder, about $140 for the tray and cylinder at Target.com.


Ok, this isn't an end table, but it is a great red leather ottoman-sleeper in the style of Storehouse Furniture's (but about $300 less!). It pops-out into a twin-sized bed! It's a little bit pricey, but well rated by buyers. Red Leather Ottoman Sleeper, $599.99 at Target.com.

31 Crazy Hotel Rooms

A very interesting post about a hotel with 31 oddly-themed rooms. This site has a ridiculous number of ads, so you'll have to scroll down quite a lot to see the photos.

Via Apartment Therapy.

Soy Sauce Solved

Thanks to Kitchen Therapy for demystifying soy sauce. You can keep it at room temperature, despite what the bottle says. I think it tastes much better when it's not cold, but that's probably all in my head.

The Return of Mod

It looks as though Mod might make a comeback. Modern design is always in style, but has not recently been taken to an extreme. Lately, it has been mixed in with eclectic interiors as an accent instead of being employed as a style. However, a shift towards Mod has started. Last fall, designers moved away from the layered, Bohemian styles that have dominated the runways for the past few years (see "Playing Fashion's New Angles" from last weekend's WSJ). Companies like Chanel, Gucci, and Diane Von Furstenberg (featured left) moved towards simpler silhouettes, featuring bold geometric prints, metallics, trapeze dresses, and architectural heels. Barney's winter window displays took Andy Warhol's life and works as inspiration, and stores like Neiman Marcus and Anne Taylor are following suit this spring with toned-down versions of the bold new styles.

In my experience, decorating styles often follow the major trends in our wardrobes. Over the last few years, the focus has been on eclectic design and the layering of pattern and texture within our closets as well as our interiors. Our fashion magazines have been filled with layered looks like leggings, plaids with stripes, button and bead embellishments, and encouragement to mix our favorite existing pieces with a few new pieces to create our own signature style. According to blogs like ShakinStyle and the Interior Design Show's Trendwatcher blog the same is true for our interiors this year.

At the same time some of the current trends seem to be setting the stage for a drastic change. We see hints at the return of the totally white kitchen and black and white room designs popping up in decorator magazines. We see more and more success for stores like West Elm and CB2, which feature furniture and accessories with simple lines in solid colors or big, bold patterns. Designers like Jonathan Adler are featuring looks that distinctly hearken back to the '50s and '60s.

For example, take the recent prevalence of CB2's Sleepy Hollow rug. The item was featured on Product Dose and then picked up by several design blogs (including this one), all of which sung its praises. Apartment Therapy Chicago featured it in reference to an apartment featuring an iconic, full-wall black and white mural of a tree. The tree pattern may not be Mod. At the end of the day, it's not a geometric pattern. The rug is part of the naturalist trend, but it ties in with Mod design because it is a bold black and white print.

Is this the beginning of a change? The Wall Street Journal implied that clothing retailers are concerned about jumping into the new aesthetic with full gusto. My guess is that we will all spend a little more time testing the waters before we make any drastic changes to our closets or our living rooms.

Clockwise from the upper left: Happy Home dinnerware by Jonathan Adler, Parsons table from West Elm, Happy Home linens by Jonathan Adler, Pillows from CB2, Rug from West Elm.

Terrariums: How-To

A Terrarium how-to from Mighty Girl via Not Martha.

Design I Wish I Could Afford at Modernity

Modernity, a Swedish shop featuring mid-century design, has some really amazing pieces featured on their site. It's certainly worth a look, if just for the sake of inspiration.

Via Design*Sponge.