we do...

"i wish we had a fabulous bathroom"...

"but we do have a fabulous bathroom, it just happens to be from the 60's"...

you're not invited but i actually am...

hey folk's...

so i had a wee request to share some of the invitations i've been working on lately...

here goes...

a "baby shower" invite for our good friends michael p and brandy...michael and brandy are already the proud parents of no more than 5 beautiful dogs...

a "save the date" and a "wedding invitation" for our friends bright and cash who mc wife and i have gotten to know since we moved here...i used the template of the state of arkansas for their save the date...

and another "save the date" and "wedding invitation" for our friends zaff and mallory...mc wife and mallory are childhood friends...

i hope you like...

back tomorrow with a fantastic guest post...

i'm back with a handy recycling tip...

it's been a while folks...

but today i'm back with a deadly little recycling post...

and what is it you may ask...

well it's simply the end of the roll that A1/A0 paper rolls come in, the plastic end...turn it on its end and use as a highlighter caddy...

voila...free...

reduce...re-use..recycle...

too much to do...

well folks...

how are y'all...

i'm terribly bad...i've had no time for blogging recently...

barbie's revelation that she is now an architect appears to have thrown me into dis-array... well...that's a viable excuse for not blogging huh...

in fairness...i've been pre-occupied... mc wife and i have been busy busy busy...

i've taken to designing invitations in my spare time, and that has gained a lot of interest among friends... get this right...i charge a wee fee for my design services, not a lot in fairness...and then i give the jpeg to whoever and they take it to the printers...i actually designed an invitation for a wedding shower that mc wife and i and some friends are hosting, i needed 60 invitations...took it to get printed and cut last night, and the bill came to $7.00 or there abouts...how inexpensive is that...!!!

in the light of high faluting announcements regarding visitors to ireland...the dalai lama this week (by the way, he is coming to fayetteville next month and mc wife and i have tockets to go see him...)...herself the queen of england and himself the big un, obama in may...

all that has been overshadowed by my own preparations for my own visitors...this is my official announcement released from the house of custard..."my wee nephews donnacha and eoin are coming to visit over the easter break with their mammy and daddy, and their granny and granda (my own folks)"...

this is too exciting...the lads are 13 months old now and this will be the first time i meet them...cannot wait is an understatement...i've not seen my own folks and my sister since our wedding last july other than skype visits at the weekends... so our house has been given full attention...

guest bedrooms given a bit of an update and a lick of paint, bedlinen's updating, vouchers for pottery barn and such like that we recived for wedding presents came into play...home depot has been my best friend for quite a while now...as has wal-mart's garden center...

we spent all last weekend uprooting weeds and planting shrubs and pots and hanging baskets and revamping brown plastic pots with a lick of black and silver spray paint...so needless to say...i've been busy...

one more thing before i go..

the power of blogging...shame shame on me for not blogging in light of recent correspondance... hgtv have been in contact with me regarding a new tv programme they want to air in the fall, and how did they find me...via my blogspot...

yay me...

as it turns out i'm actually not a suitable candidate for the show...but regardless...it says wonders for the power of social media and blogging...

no pictures today folks...sorry... stay tuned next week for a few sneek peaks of some updates in our wee house in fayetteville...

architecture barbie...

really...

yes..apparently so...

if you didn't know this yet, Barbie’s latest incarnation is… an architect...!!!

mattell recently launched the model in new york, as part of the “I Can Be…” series...which feature a variety of professions...

the architect-character looks far to cheerful and relaxed to be said profession...has the chunky thickframed glasses yet seems to be very much into pink and carries a set of blueprints...

no bags under the eyes...???

i wonder how sharp she is with autoCAD and sketch-up...

white...

today it's all about white interiors...

mc wife and i are all about the whites right now...

and if anyone has any great ideas about stripping painted furniture down to the original wood...answers on a postcard please...

in the mood for design...

today i'm guest posting over at garrendenny lane for lorna...

please stop by and see what i have to say...

bank on it...

this is a bank...

not a hotel lobby...

not a designer brand section of macy's or brown thomas...

not a vip section in la or miami's coolest nightclub...

not a members only dining lounge in any of the world's top members only clubs...

not a beautiful terrace with breathtaking views on the costa del whatsit...

not the most elegant yet phunky staircase in some uber chic hotel that every bride want her picture taken on...

not a wall street boardroom...

not the finest looking indoor vertical landscape installation for lenny kravitz...

nope - none of the above...

it the first ever bank concept store for bnp paribas, in paris...created by paris based architeect fabrice (well clearly he's not called chad bradley michaels the 3rd or pat joe mc atarsnick...) ausset of zoevox...

images courtesy of the cool hunter...

something contemporary about it...

brocante...not exactly sure what it means...

i've an inkling its french for "flea" or fleamarket...i'm only sad i never had an opportunity to go visit the brocante furniture market when i was in dublin....

anyhow...you can find out more by clicking here...

so what caught my eye today was something i saw on "something about mary's" facebook page...what's "something about mary" you may wonder too...

"Something About Mary - a collection of images related to Mary - pictures, prints, collages, statues, retablos. Images and Pieces from all around the world."

"Something About Mary began when Shane MacGowan gave us his Madonna drawing, 'Madonna and the Archangel' and grew, is still growing, from there. Please enjoy. All proceeds to Three People - a family poisoned by pesticides."

quotes robbed from "something about mary's facebook page"...

so this is what i saw...

herself and a naggin of jim beam...what's not to love about it...

"tray mary" by "think contemporary" who i've mentioned before on here...more from "think contemporary" later this week...

love grows in all sorts of places...

and if you take your loved for a stroll on garrendenny lane...you might just find it there...

happy valentines day readers...

release...

i've always hidden a geeky bird loving ornathologistical element to my inner self...

but then i moved to arkansas and i just couldn't contain it...hawks, falcons, eagles, turkey vultures, blue birds, cardinals, woodpeckers, hummingbirds...the list goes on...

oh it was all too much...so i embraced the love for all things feathered and winged...and i'm now even the proud owner of a pair of binoculars thanks to mc father-in-law...

i always remember as a child my father talking about corncrakes and curlews and such birds...

when i would go to the gaeltacht in donegal my parents would come to visit on a weekend and they'd be fascinated by the sounds of the birds in the evening because those sounds were almost a rarity back in armagh...

then i received an email form the irish design shop and i decided to share the love...

corncrake print by yellowhammer available at the irish design shop...

here are a few more images from yellow hammer...love the simplicity and caricature displayed in the graphics...

i love all of the above prints...i don't know that i've ever seen a kingfisher myself, but i always remember hearing the loud chuckles of a pheasant (how would you describe the sound a pheasant makes) and then watching it fly low above the ground, disturbed from whatever it was doing by something or other...and in the summer when we'd be making hay the swallows always seem to gather in the telephone wires above the fields...the swallows against the yellow backdrop is the perfect choice for this print...

but my favourite print...is the kestrel print and here's why...

i have some weird fascination with eagles and kestrels and falcons and the likes...and i hope to go to one of those places where i get to put on the big heavy glove and have a massive big bird of prey come land on my arm, and i'll get to give it a piece of meat or a mouse or something and then...this is my favourite part...i'll hold out my arm, and raise it up to the sky and i'll say "release" and the bird will spread its wings and take off in flight from me...

release...please check out the irish design shop for more fantastic prints...

lodged...

thinking about notions of rustic with a hint of southern charm and maybe a wee hint of a french accent...

what say ye...???

big...bigger...biggest...

snowpocolypse...snow week 2011...snowmania...whatever you want to call it it's here and it's kinda bad...

it's hard to imagine that last saturday mc wife and i sat on the front porch with a few beers, some homemade salsa and chips and caught up with my ones on skype for the best part of the afternoon...

and then 2 days later the temperatures plummeted and it started to freeze ands now...

anyways...so i guess the snow on our roof has started to thaw a bit, but by the time it reaches the eaves it started to form an icicle...so this morning when i first got up they were big, and so i thought i'd take a picture...

and then by lunch time they were bigger...and i took another picture....

and by tea-time they were biggest and i took another picture...

i'm just fascinated because i always remember my daddy talking about how when he was a child the icicles were over a foot long and they'd hang way down off the eaves of grannies house and i always wanted to see those...

and here they are hanging off the eaves of our house in villetown...

loving it...

clean...cool...modern...sophisticated...

...suzy hoodless

inspiring...

inspiring...

i don't know if i was particularly inspiring but today i visited with the sophomore class of the interior design school at the university of arkansas...

their professor heard about me, what i'm doing now, and what my previous background is via mc wife...and she invited me to visit her class...

currently they are working on a design proposal for a new cafe/coffee and light foods venue at the university campus...

(pic of old main at the university of arkansas campus...via me via instagram...)

i visitied with the class along with a field expert form the hospitality sector, and together we answered questions form the students for an hour or so...

the questions were quite varied, and i was impressed by the thought processes of these second year students...they all seemed very clued into key issues such as meeting the clients need, created a functional space that;s user-friendly, creating the right ambience and how to research a project to include a suitable colour palette and material selection...

i managed to throw out some of my own experinces that i have encountered as a designer, as well as discuss various designers who i like to look to for inspiration...

and just in case any of todays sophomore class are visiting the blog and didn't catch what i said earlier...here's the list...

jaime hayon...marcel wanders...and cortney and robert novogratz...

i didn't reference philippe starck in todays class...but if you did come here to see some of the resources i spoke about...look at the websites on the right hand side of this post...

all modern office wish list...

mc wife and i are in the middle of turning our junkroom into a home office...

we have a few key pieces we need to complete the room, we really want our office to be fresh and modern, so while on a quest for suitable modern furniture - an additional chair, extra lighting...we came across these pieces...

completely fallen head over heels with this chair...

i want i want i want...

it's hard to beat the anglepoise lamp...

but then these guys are rather funky too...

manana floor lamp from design house sweden...rocks...!!!

plus there's loads more cool phunky furniture ideas for other rooms in the house...

the kartell - panier side table...again...i want...!!!

please do check out the website for a complete range of modern furniture products...

snowy interiors...

it's a snow day here in fayetteville arkansas...its 28 degrees farenheit out there...

and since i woke up this morning and looked out my window the concrete patio was visible and now its a big blanket of white so its fairly coming down out there....so much so that i can't make it to work...

so i got to thinking about cozy interiors influenced by the wintery hues and tones we often associate with the season...cool whites, soft greys, stark blacks, icey blues...

this image is very striking...i wish i knew where it was...

so dark and heavy...it's awesome...

i'm not so sure what makes plaid wintery but nonetheless...this room makes it into the post for the sheer cosyness of it all and the simplicity of the black and white bedding...

thanks for checking in today...hopefully this weather isn't too terrible for too long and i can make it into work tomorrow...

pics all courtesy of apartment therapy...

these are a few of my favourite things...

the cool hunter and jaime hayon...click here for the cool hunter post....

some building that i've never heard about, and maybe i should of got an overhaul...and here's the scoop...

by the late 1980's the praediniussingel building that had housed the groninger museum for 100 years, was too small for the musuem's modern and contemporary collections and exhibits....by the mid 1990's, new premises on the verbingdings canal in groningen were designed by the italian alessandro mendini and guest architects philippe starck, michele de lucchi and the coop himmelblau group...

anyways, that was all very important background info and maybe slightly too blahdy blahdy blah, but...since 1994, almost million people have visited, and you can imagine the wear nad tear that causes...so, the premises have now been renovated and new spaces by antwerp based studio job, spanish designer and personal favourite jaime hayon, and maarten baas have been added...

the info center by jaime hayon steals the show for me, and for tuija seipell it's "one of the coolest areas in the new building"...

i love the colour scheme, very understated and cool, while managing to be current and fresh...that's hardly easy to achieve...

polished copper is clearly all the rage right now...don't those pendants look amazing...

what maybe lacked lustre before seems to have it all back...i love the order of the ceiling lamp fixtures in the picture above...is that flooring original...??? surely, it has to be and it's been fully restored...???...!!! either way, it's such a statement...almost like a newspaper maze...

jaime hayon...you rock my design world...!!!