Amanda Johnson

Amanda Johnson has an Etsy shop where she sells vintage clothing and accessories called hafe caf. She currently has a sale going where you can receive free shipping on all U.S. orders over $25. Amanda's home is also filled with lots of vintage goodies, take a look at her cozy living room and entry way. images found on Flickr

Mobiles

I tried taking some pictures of my mobiles, but the weather is not cooperating and the lighting is no good for pictures. Anyway, these are made using 1/8" birch plywood, spray paint and water-based stains. They would look great hanging near a window, or even as a wall hanging. Each section can easily move up and down the string so you can position them exactly where you want them. I wish I had a video camera: they're so pretty when they're in motion!

I have no idea how to price them, but for now I will only charge $35. I will have them for sale on my main Etsy page soon.

The Shade Store

I have so many windows in my home that could use a new look! I got some great ideas from the Shade Store. They sell beautiful modern and retro fabric shades and curtains, check out more at the www.theshadestore.com.

Urban Outfitters: +OO™ by Blue Dot Collection

Check out the new furniture line at Urban Outfitters. I love that lilly pad coffee table, sometimes I wish I had more rooms in my home to decorate...sigh

Plastic cup chandeliers

I thought I'd share Julianne's Atelier's cup chandeliers that I found on the Retro Restoration post on Etsy today. Enjoy

Etsy Finds Decor: Retro Restoration

Thanks to Christine for posting about my home on Etsy's The Storque.

Kathi Rienstra, recycled grocery totes

I saw Kathi's booth at the market yesterday and at first glance I walked right by, but then I walked over again and saw these bags close up and my mouth dropped. Her bags are made from plastic bags that she gathers from recycling bins around town and from friends and family. Made with a small crochet hook which adds more work for her but she believes makes a better, stronger product. I had a fun time guessing which store the the bags came from, Market Basket, Shaws, Target etc.

Check out her bags on Etsy

Hooray!

sun sun sun!

See you at the market today!

Ready set go!

So we finally got the tent today but on the rainy ride home the windshield wipers stopped working. My poor husband Al looked a bit freaked out driving on the highway not being able to see, but we got home ok.

Besides that horrible ordeal we are having fun staining and painting those mobiles I once talked about making. I thought it would be cool to have them hanging from the tent for the outdoor market tomorrow, I should have at least two of them ready.

I will keep you updated on the mobiles and if the market is still on for tomorrow.

Modology: custom credenzas

Modology was established in 1998 by Keith Chrapliwy and Andrew Cape. Initially, they bought and sold vintage modern furniture pieces mostly on Ebay, but as the high-end pieces became harder to find, they found an opportunity to revamp less attractive ones. They subsequently started building these pieces from scratch, as the demand for storage became apparent. Andrew has since left the company, but with commissions coming in very frequently, Keith finds himself building and improving these great storage pieces full-time. I love these designs!

Yucky yuck yuck!

I am participating in the Concord Arts Market this Saturday, which means I have to buy a tent with plastic sides to protect me from the rain, oh how fun... If anyone is feeling adventurous please come out and visit my booth and keep me company, I'll even bring an extra chair for you!

Click here for directions.

Interview: Lisa Congdon

Name: Lisa Congdon
Occupation: Artist, Illustrator, Co-owner, Rare Device
Location: San Francisco, CA

Illustration portfolio
Fine art portfolio
My portfolio at Lilla Rogers Studio (agent)
Paintings on Flickr

1. What kind of art do you make?
I am mostly a painter, but I also do collage work, ink drawing and digital illustration.

2. What do you enjoy most about working in this medium?
Paint is the most forgiving medium. When you paint, you don’t have to render perfectly the first time your brush hits the surface. You continue to paint until you get the effect you want, and you can paint over mistakes or glitches, developing and layering as you go. I love that about painting. I am the most relaxed when I am painting. It takes the longest, but I feel the final result has the most depth.



3. What challenges have you found in your work?
As a full time artist, I make art almost everyday. As exciting as it is that this is my daily path now (and I wouldn’t trade it for anything), I struggle with generating new ideas, keeping them fresh and executing them in a way that people will respond to. Staying creative and positive requires enormous focus because I rarely take a break from it. That said, anytime I feel overwhelmed, I remember the days when I sat in front of a computer and in meetings all day in an office, and I feel enormously grateful for the path that I am on now. I really love being an artist and illustrator.

little corner of Lisa's studio

4. Where do you find inspiration?
I am really fortunate to live in a really amazing and beautiful city. San Francisco is paradise to me. It’s filled with enormous natural beauty, diverse cultures, an amazing art scene, beautiful architecture, wonderful food and people. I feel inspired being here, most of all.



5. What are your favorite artists, designer or blogs.
I love so many artists and designers, but some of my favorites are: Ian Johnson, Mike Maxwell, the late Margaret Kilgallen, Olle Oksell, Matthew Brannon, and the late Alexander Girard.



6. Other things about me!
I live in the Mission District of San Francisco with my partner, our 9 pound Chihuahua Wilfredo, and our cats. Barry and Margaret. I have lived in San Francisco for 19 years. I work almost everyday in my beautiful studio, which is a few blocks from my apartment. I also co-own a small shop and gallery in San Francisco called Rare Device (www.raredevice.net). We sell design objects, art and design books, housewares, etc. and we show a range of emerging artists from all over the world. I love to swim and ride my bike, cook with my partner, and read the New York Times on Sunday morning.

Craigslist Finds (MA/NH)

I used to post local (Greater Boston area) Craigslist finds when I first started my blog, but I stopped doing it since I figured people are reading this from all over the world. However, if my Goggle Analytics data is to be believed, I do have a lot of readers around this area... So since I'm always checking Craigslist anyway for myself, I figured I'd start spreading the love again among my New England compatriots. So without further ado, check out what I've found recently:

Vintage Retro Pop Art Chair $200 (Jamaica Plain, MA)
Sphere chairs black/white set of 2 $125 (Revere, MA)
Retro/Vintage Record Cabinet $25 (Manchester, NH)
1960S STACK GLASS TOP TABLES (3) $45 (Needham, MA)

Leave a comment if you like this feature and I'll start posting my Craigslist finds more regularly.

Father's Day weekend...

I'm kind of bummed out that the forecast here in New England will be cloudy and rainy for the weekend, but I guess that will mean dads won't be out slaving away on the grill this Sunday! Here's to dads!

floating glass orbs

Bubble balls
My order from CB2 came in a few days ago and we started to put the glass balls into the water. The fish love these things. The glass was surprisingly strong and didn't feel like it would break if you looked at it the wrong way. I would definitely recommend them for what ever project you have in mind, they are beautiful.

This is how we have them staying in place

Interview: Robin Zingone

Name: Robin Zingone
Occupation: Licensor/designer
Location: Chester, CT
website: www.robinzingone.com

1. What kind of art do you make?

Prior to Adobe Illustrator, I did all of my illustrations with india ink and goauche. I still love to work this way as it is impossible to digitally duplicate the feeling that comes from your hand to the paper...That said, I work mainly in Illustrator now because it is so quick and easy to make changes in color and shape, and ultimately my licensees prefer that flexibility...but I really do miss getting messy.

The work I have been concentrating on now are my licensed properties: robin zingone®, a lifestyle brand of mod patterns and chic images for the home, fashion, etc...cocomimilulu, my tween girl brand, loveMe by robin zingone®, my collection of dogs and cats based on kawaii (the cute culture of Japan) and Girlygirl by robin zingone®, the fabulous fashionista with the big smile. Before 9/11, I was an assignment illustrator working about 80 hours a week for editorial and advertising clients. When that end of the business crashed and died and the phone stopped ringing, I decided to make the leap into licensing. I still do assignments which I LOVE TO DO, but concentrate most of my energy on the business of licensing.



2. What do you enjoy most about working in this medium?

I still draw all my work by hand on tissue, my assistant scans it and redraws it in Illustrator. Then I take over and tweak, move, fuss and fluff until it feels right. I still like the mistakes the hand makes, so I guess you could call me "old school".



3. What challenges have you found in your work?

Every job is a challenge. What do I want to convey, who am I trying to sell to, what will make this different from everyone else, how can I do this better? Those are my everyday challenges. But there is one challenge that I still have not mastered...how to not have a nervous breakdown when my email doesn't work.



4. Where do you find inspiration?

I am a very visual person and it doesn’t take much to inspire me, but I do love to flip through magazines…any kind. I can be looking at a fashion magazine and see a fabulous shoe on a model and think- “ That shoe would make a great graphic for a Girl’s Night Out card.” I can be looking at a travel magazine and see a picture of a pale, sandy beach and think “ That color palette would be beautiful translated onto a pattern for dinnerware.” Or I could be reading the New York Times and see an article about how “Slumdog Millionaire” is the hottest movie and I would think” Hmmmmm, hot pink is going to popular this year.” When I look at the petal of a flower, when I eat chinese food out of a carton (with chopsticks of course), when I dance to Gloria Gaynor, when I skip down Park Avenue with the tulips in bloom, when I sit in my Eero Saarinen electric blue chair, I am always inspired. What I find to be most frustrating thing about life is that there is so much to create, so little time.

5. What are your favorite artists, designer or blogs.

I just found an artist that I love- Pascal Blanchet, beautiful shapes, colors, design. I also love the blog of Ingela P. Arrhenius from Sweden-she is prolific and not only creates the most fun graphics and characters that make you smile, but she also paints and draws magnificently. I love the children's book artist Miroslav Sasek popular in the fifties, of course Jim Flora http://www.jimflora.com/...he was a happy man from the look of his work. Love David Hockney, Matisse, Rex Ray, Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin. Love the blog thesartorialist.blogspot.com and printpattern.blogspot.com just for inspiration...I could go on and on and on.

The guest room

One of the reasons we fell in love with our particular home is that it has about 2300 sq. ft. of living area. Most mid-century homes (at least in New England) are quite small by comparison, so for a while it seemed like we would never find a place that would suit both our space needs and our architectural wants. Thankfully, we did.

The house has three "bedrooms": a large master bedroom, another large room that is my office and a third, smaller (14ft x 12ft) room in between the two. We've been using this third room as storage (we have no basement) but with the garage almost completed, my husband has been moving his tools and things out there, and the room is beginning to clear out. There's still some stuff in there I need to move - a table, my childhood doll house, my nana's old army trunk, a bunch of old lamps - but it's getting to where we can start thinking about turning it into its intended use: a guest room!

I'm at a loss for what I would like to do in there. What color should I paint it? For some reason I keep thinking blue or yellow... Any ideas?

Foyer

This must be my favorite room in my home because this is all I seem to take pictures of. I'm always making small updates and a few weeks ago I put some extensions over my long billy bookcases, not many people can tell the difference, so I guess that's a good thing. I also abandoned my painting that was over the bookcases and found a framed Picasso print at a flea market for only a few dollars, not sure how old it is but it smells old and it's a bit worn, it's printed on some kind of foam. When it's hung up so high you can't really see it's small imperfections.

Guernica

Plans for the living room

photoshop mockup

Ok, so I found my dream chair (I still can't believe it either) and I'm ready to give my living room some personality - and by that I mean some color and texture. I'm still researching places to get my chair reupholstered. If anyone knows any good ones around NH and MA, please let me know. Tips on good places to find cool fabric would also be appreciated.

Then there's the carpet: I currently have a large, ugly white berber carpet that I want to get rid of. I've always wanted a big white shag rug, but never wanted to invest that much money into a carpet (mostly because my husband and I are slobs!)

A few weeks ago when I was in Ikea I noticed the Stockholm shag rugs. They come in white cream, gray and a burnt orange color, and measure 7 ' 10 " x 5 ' 7 ". I want white, but the orange carpet is very similar to the orange wall in the dining room. If I could go and buy both to try them out, I would. Unfortunately, it's a 90 minute drive to Ikea. So I guess I will just go with white. I will need to buy two of them and sew or tape them together.

Jenn Ski the Craigslist hunter!

You would not believe what I found on Craigslist today! I drove about an hour and a half but it was soo worth it! The seller described it as a "Disco Chair" but the correct name is womb chair. The seller told me it was reupholstered about 10 years ago but I really don't mind because I plan on getting it reupholsted in a yellow/mustard wool anyway.

How much was it, you ask? OK, drum roll... I only paid $80 for it!! This is a $2,500-$3,000 chair!!

Now I need to go and find some fantastic fabric for it! Hooray!

I want those shoes!

Check out my favorite picks from Anthropologie, those red Life-Of-The-Party Flats look so cute and comfortable!

Adorable retro shoes from Plastic Land (via retro to go)

Great balls of light

I've always loved the idea of having glowing orbs littered around my home. The ones above are range from $325 to $1,000!

I've decided to buy some bubble balls from CB2 and have them floating over the koi pond. There are lights in the pond but I plan on getting more to help illuminate the orbs. I had gone to Ikea looking for their solar lights but for a tuesday I found no one that could help me and many of their solar lighting looked like it was already gone :( My yard is mostly wooded and solar lighting may not be a good idea anyway.

I still need to find a way to plug up the small holes, looks like a fun project.