the obsessive imagist | art, design, life: April 2012

WEST ELM

I was flipping through the pages of the West Elm catalogue last night and found myself falling in love with everything. Everything! I swear! And since I can't buy everything (I have a fully furnished apartment after all), I figure I can justify a couple things, namely sheets and pillows. You can never have enough of those!

top to bottom:
hand-blocked diamond pillow cover, $34-$39
stripe edge sheet set, $69-$89
pinstripe pillow covers, $24
stripe sheet set, $19-$99
swiss dot duvet cover and shams, $24-$139

What are you up to this weekend? This afternoon, after I present my dissertation proposal at school, I am headed to California! I will be back here on Tuesday with lots of pictures, but until then have a great one!

WHAT COLOR WILL BE IT TODAY IN MILAN?

How cool is this concept? The French clothing line Pimkie has used selectively placed web cams and high tech programming to analyze the latest colors in fashion in Paris, Milan and Antwerp* in real time. Crazy, right? Their site updates every ten minutes with a live reading of the most popular color people are wearing in each city. Here was this morning's forecast, as of 8:30am EST:

It also lets you go one level deeper and buy clothes in that day's color. Smart, right?

And, for infographic lovers like me, they also show you all the colors they collected the day before, the week before and the month before. The overall results are a little bit more earth toned than I might wear myself (my outfits have been compared to sherbet by my coworkers), but the overall design is still super cool.

Check it all out for yourself here.

(thanks to Design Mom for the tip)

*My question is where is New York's forecast?! And how can you tell when people are wearing stripes? :)

MOTHER'S DAY GIFT GUIDE

In case you haven't peeked at your May calendar yet, Mother's Day is on May 13. Which means that you need to find something lovely to show your beautiful, saintly Mother that you love her. A challenge sometimes, no? Well I have you covered! Here are some of my favorites gifts for all our of cool, chic, and classic Moms . . .

1 . . . . a touching book of poetry by the brilliant (former poet laureate) Billy Collins

2 . . . . the best hand cream on the face of the planet with a light, lovely scent

3 . . . . cool kid sunglasses to make her feel as cool as her kid

4 . . . . perfect for entertaining, an ash wood cutting board

5 . . . . low maintenance (but elegant!) succulents to put in a pretty terrarium

6 . . . . a deliciously, subtly scented candle in a sweet tin

7 . . . . tiny gold stud earrings to put a little sparkle in your everyday

8 . . . . a dotty scarf to throw on for those sunday morning brunch dates

9 . . . . a shiny zip leather pouch that doubles as a clutch for evenings out

FROM THE ARCHIVES: RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

I am cracking down this week to finish a bunch of school work and the weather seems to be complying. Here in New York we are in the middle of a nor'easter and I don't know about you, but I always find it more satisfying to get to work when there is nothing exciting to do outside. Now if the weather was forecast to be as pretty as it was in Austin in March—where this sunset photo was taken—then I would be in real trouble.

I will do my best to post regularly this week, but if I miss out here and there, feel free to check out my other photographs here and here.

SUMMER CHIC: STRIPES AND DOTS

We all know I love polka dots and stripes and, this summer, JCrew is totally feeding my obsession. It seems like every other top or dress is in one of these patterns (or anchors), but you won't find me complaining!

So without further ado, from top to bottom, left to right:

-------------row one---------------------
Kimono-Sleeve Maxidress, $118
Big-Shot Dot Dress, $158

-------------row two-------------------
Drawstring Tunic in Stripe, $88
Zip-Front T-Shirt Dress, now $69.50

-------------row three-----------------------------------
Vintage Cotton Pocket Tank in Stripe, $29.50
Naomi Top in Polka Dot, $110

-------------row four------------------
Elinor Dress in Polka Dot, $148
Maritime-Stripe Blazer, $118

Have a great weekend! I will see you back here on Monday!

BLUE, AND OTHER ROYAL COLORS

Just a quick post to say that the Queen is one stylish lady. British Vogue put together a graphic that followed the royal sartorial decisions over the course of a year and mapped out Queen Elizabeth's favorite colors to sport. Turns out she has a penchant for blue and a dislike for beige. I agree Queen Mum. I agree.

(thanks to plenty of color for another great tip)

FONT FABRIC

Being a design geek, I am always on the look out for cool (ahem, and free) fonts to use in my next personal project. Well the lovely Jessica Jones pointed me to the website Font Fabric, which has number of very cool very free fonts on offer, and I am in heaven.

Do yourself a favor and check it out here.

PUT ON A HAPPY FACE

I am putting this wonderful, heart-warming documentary at the top of my Netflix queue. It would be the perfect thing to watch on a rainy day when you have the blahs.

Could this kid be any more creative, clever or straight up adorable? I don't think so. So glad to see his college fund is overflowing with admiring donations!

This guy, journalist Charlie Bird, definitely has the coolest job ever. I think the seal agrees!

Just three amazing videos (recently posted by swiss miss here, here and here) to put a smile on your face this Monday. I am headed to a conference today and tomorrow, so I will see you here again on Wednesday. Until then, don't forget to smile!

PER YOUR SUGGESTION: (W)ALT DISNEY POSTERS

My friend Courtney suggested I might like these posters; turns out she knows me pretty well because these are awesome! The artist Rowan Stocks-Moore re-imagined the normally bright and sappy Walt Disney poster and instead created something dramatic and dark and beautiful. Aren't they cool? I am especially in love with the Alice in Wonderland and Bambi posters. Thankfully you can buy these designs and more at Stocks-Moore's Etsy site here.

(via TQS Magazine)

ERINDOLLAR

I have had this beautiful silkscreen poster, by Etsy shop erindollar, on my wish list for a while. It would be the perfect thing to hang over a desk or in your entryway to inspire you to do your best every day. Today I am presenting at a big conference on the topic of college art museums and I can't think of a better motto to take with me as inspiration.

While checking out the erindollar shop I noticed that they offer some beautiful pillow designs too. That oatmeal colored pennant design is just lovely. Perfect on an oatmeal colored couch like mine.

Check out more of the erindollar offerings—unfortunately the 'work hard' poster is sold out!—here.

PROJECT THIRTY THREE, REVISITED

I posted about Project Thirty Three—the very cool album cover archive—before here. But, as you can see, it is definitely worth a revisit. After all, while I am designing my wedding invitations I am looking for inspiration everywhere. I love the way the covers interlace text and shapes so seamlessly—the designs appear both 2D and 3D at the same time.

Get yourself inspired here.

REVELING, AS A GUEST

I took the day off from posting yesterday to do some celebrating—it was my birthday and all my friends and family made it fabulous—but there are other things to celebrate today. Like my first guest post on another blog! The blog is called Revel and it is a fabulous, design-minded wedding blog full of great ideas and even better shopping links (you click a link and buy anything you see; brilliant!).

The post is called 'Home to Wedding' and it looks at how I am transforming my home style into a wedding style. There are some pretty cool finds in there, if I do say so myself, so go check it out here.

EASTER CRAFTS

I have been daydreaming about all the fun Easter crafts I am going to do this weekend (though, knowing my schedule, I may not manage to make any!) and thought I would share some of my favorite how tos with you. Even if you don't celebrate Easter, most of these would be fun to ring in spring!