The last several days have been a bit insane, so I'm glad it's Friday! Hope everyone has a fun weekend planned! A few lovely things I saw this week (click images for purchasing/details): This 14" diameter bowl ($40, Horchow) is made of recycled metal and jute rope. The pattern reminds me of dream catchers without the feathers and it's always nice to have natural materials mixed in with your decor. I have an oval dining table, and it seems so hard to find placemats that I like and will fit well all next to each other. But regardless of fit, I love the colors of these ($36 each, ABC Home) and the metallic thread woven throughout the raw hemp. I also like that they're handcrafted at an economically sustainable embroidery co-op in Vietnam. I know, I know. These have been around a while, but I do truly love the color combos and the space-saving quality of these nylon whisks ($18 each, Gretel). And I never got to feature them when I wanted to, so let me get it out of my system. There. I'm curious to know how they stand up under regular use. Has anyone used one? This is one of those cases where something functional has been made beautiful. Looking at this piece you almost don't realize it's meant to put flies and other pests down ($14, Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co.). It's handcrafted in Germany and made from leather and beechwood. Little Sun ($28, MoMA Store) is a solar-powered LED lamp developed by artist Olafur Eliasson and solar engineer Frederik Ottesen. Every purchase makes it possible for Little Suns, which provide clean reliable light, to be sold at locally affordable prices to the 1.6 billion people worldwide living in communities without access to the electrical grid.
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Yin and yang. Shadow and light. The infamous Seinfeld black-and-white cookie episode. We're always looking to black and white to provide harmony. Black and white are huge right now, though I think truthfully we can always say that. There is a comfort in the consistency, it's always chic, and the less-confident home decorator is safe in knowing the two colors always go together and with everything else, too.
I'm in awe of people—especially young people—who charge out into the world and try to truly enact change for the better. And I'm equally, if not more so, in awe of people who are in extremely disadvantaged positions and fight to be agents of change for their families and their communities. All the women behind Mercado Global are such people.
Founder Ruth DeGolia began the company as a college student in 2004 after spending time in Guatemala and seeing the abject poverty and lack of opportunities. Over the last nine years, with her heart and business savvy, she and her team have built a nonprofit fair trade organization dedicated to alleviating poverty and developing an infrastructure for female artisans to support themselves. More than 400 skilled women in 30-plus cooperatives across Guatemala craft by hand jewelry, pillows, and bags to be sold in North and Latin America. Mercado Global partners with the indigenous women to educate and empower artisans, and to connect them to the literal global market in order to create the opportunities needed to break the cycle of poverty and to provide education and nutritious food, among other needs, for themselves and their children. Their chic new handcrafted bags, now available at Red Envelope, directly support the process. Italian designer Paola Navone's highly-anticipated collection for Crate and Barrel debuted in select stores and online today; the line will roll out to all stores by the end of the week. It is the first of three planned collections and includes nearly 150 pieces of tabletop, furniture, textiles, lighting, and decorative accents. Paola Navone is a renowned talent with her hand in architecture, interior design, product design, and set design.
Organic shapes and a mix of materials all evoke the Mediterranean inspiration that threads itself through much of the well-traveled designer's work. One of the best things about summer is that it's peach season. Here are some sweet goodies, inspired by the colors of my favorite fruit.
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#checkout this blog with shop-themed puns
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