Woo hoo! You’ve reached the halfway point! time for a little french electro avant garde wacky fabulousness via Yelle

Love the simple graphic primary color blocking on this collection of teapots and mugs from Anouk Jansen.

Some beautiful new pieces from elephant ceramics to start your week. photos by philip ficks (via elephant ceramics fb)

Happy Friday my HM friends! Apologies for the lack of post-age this week. I’ve been occupied trying to finish work stuff and then heading down and working on Project SB. Big progress is definitely happening (finally- I’ve been sitting on the floor a lot and frankly, that might have been fun when I was in college, but right now, not so much! proper back support is mandatory!), and I’ll be posting all of that next week. I can’t believe it’s going to be Thanksgiving already?! I’ll be spending it down in Solana Beach, so very excited about that. The weather these past two weekends has been a little rainy, but mostly chilly gray and overcast. Not exactly ideal beach living weather, but at the same time, I’m kind of enjoying it. As far as So Cal weather is concerned, this is as close as we get to “fall/winter”!

It’s also given me an excuse to bust out some tea and coffee related goods in the kitchen. I’m collecting a lot of ceramics for the new place and the images above are a sneak peak of some of the fun things I’ve found. I hope you all have a great weekend and see you back next week for full status report!

artist: little boots

Such a cute design! By Lotta Odelius for Sagaform. Check out the collection here.

artist: The Sound of Arrows

It’s funny how one random thing can be the starting point for something much larger. Case in point, my current inspiration for the living room area. I was at an estate sale recently and came across this little piece of fabric sticking out of a bin in the garage area, mixed in with a ton of other random scraps of fabric that the original owner must have been saving for years. I pulled it out to find it was actually a much larger piece and I was loving the retro mid century paint splotchy pattern. The vibrant red tones with the little blue accent hits really spoke to me, so I snatched it up right away.

When I got home, I suddenly remembered that the fabric print reminded me of something else I’d also picked up a few months back: this vintage painting of a girl.

The skirt in the painting totally reminded me of the fabric. It was then that it all hit me. This painting would be an awesome starting point piece for the living room of Project SB! Originally I had thought about doing more blue tones since it is by the beach and all, but I was really liking the idea of using a red as something a little bit unexpected, but still somewhat appropriate. I also loved the gold hits that are on the edge of the black frame. So… black, red, maybe little hits of yellow, creams, white, gold metallics… and lots of little blue accents… this could be very interesting!

Oh mysterious girl in the painting… what design road will you take me on? hm… I think my lovely muse here needs a name though- What do you think I should call her?

Now that I’m in full decorating mode (for project SB), I’m looking at rug ideas and came across these amazing beauties.

The “alexandra” and “tumbucú” are part of GAN’s Glaoui collection. Love the mix of texures and such great colorways!

artist: perfume

I’ve got the keys to the new place and … now what? As mentioned, it’s 2 bed/2.5 bath. The kitchen, dining room and living room are all on the top floor. Let’s begin with the upstairs. Below are some pics. This is basically what you see when you come through the front door. The back wall is all windows.

Then, to the right, is a fireplace and then a wall. The stair case is also to the right.

If you turn to the left, there’s the dining room area, and then access to the kitchen. The second shot is the view if you were standing at the back wall of windows facing the front door area.

And so… yeah… that’s the upstairs. The kitchen isn’t big (or that much to look at,) but it does have great light. More on that later. Right now I know the big things I really need is a couch and a dining table. I’ll show the bedrooms in a future post. In the meantime, I need to start going through my stacks of mags for inspiration and try to come up with a game plan! It’s actually been quite some time since I’ve gone through the process of moving into a new space. Since I’m still staying part of the time in OC, I’m going to have to double up on things and it’s been a bit daunting realizing all the basics I need! (Oh yeah, I need trash cans too!)

Now that you’ve seen the space, any ideas? What would you do? Love to hear your thoughts!

For any of you in LA/OC- this Saturday, November 5 there’s going to be a fun event: The OC Designer Flea Market! It’s going to be in Newport Beach, at The Cove. Tons of good stuff is sure to be had. Check out all the details at the website.

Check out these inspired pieces by multi-talented Toronto based Tahir Mahmood.  Love the mix of graphic color blocking and wood! More on his work here. Pieces above available at Caviar20.

You may be wondering what is lil’ Pepé doing sitting on a (knock off) Eames lounger and what is he so deep in thought about… Well my friends, he is probably thinking about what to do with the large new space he is sitting in! (that or he could just be taking a nap.) Sometimes life gives you the opportunity to spend some quality time in a new space, and that’s exactly what’s happened to me recently. I’ll be splitting my time now between my home in Orange County and a new space I’ll be using in San Diego (specifically Solana Beach).

It’s a pretty big space, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bath- all empty and ready for a happymundane touch! I just got the keys this past weekend and a little overwhelmed with all the things I still need. Pepé is very excited about the prospect of becoming a “beach dog” and I’m super excited to start decorating a new home! I’ll be sharing the progress and process of my “Project SB.” Stay tuned for more updates and if any of you are SD based, please leave a comment! Would love to know your recommendations for shops, stores, and any of your favorites!

By the way, the views are AMAZING.