My Faves From the US

I finally scanned in my top five tears from mags I bought while visiting my family in Virginia over the Christmas holidays. Hope these offer up a little late inspiration!

Photograph by Sang An for "Mood Indigo", pages 98-103, Elle Decor January/February 2010.

Photograph by Sang An for "Mood Indigo", pages 98-103, Elle Decor January/February 2010.

Photograph by Francois Halard for "From Russia With Love", pages 122-127, Vogue US January 2010.

Photograph by Matthew Hranek for "Cold Weather Comfort", pages 102-109, Martha Stewart Living January 2010.

Photograph by Eric Piasecki for "Bold Strokes", pages 68-78, Elle Decor January/February 2010.

Kitchen Blowout @ Design*Sponge!

For how to get your kitchen in order, check out today's guest post over at the Design*Sponge guest blog!

Apple photograph from Country Homes & Interiors, canister photograph from zeehomebug’s Flickr photostream, utensil photograph from Living Etc, wall organizer and pantry photographs from Real Simple,
and pegboard photograph from Martha Stewart Living.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photograph courtesy of http://www.smittenkitchen.com/

Even though I'm settled on this side of the pond, I still celebrate Thanksgiving...albeit sometimes in other ways. (We hosted an pre-Thanksgiving Mexican fiesta this year.) So I'm taking today and tomorrow off to give thanks—and track down canned pumpkin, which is rumoured to be lurking in the canned fruit section of Waitrose. If I'm successful, I'm def going to go with glorious food blog Smitten Kitchen's recipe.

Obsession Files: Livingetc Magazine

WHAT a relief to find a shelter title with relevant ideas, accessible content, and modern (and not the frigid kind) of design! I feel for all of you US gals still missing your domino (although online mag Lonny magazine is certainly a fab new web source!), but here in the UK we have a glossy chock full of ideas: Livingetc. Here are a few to keep you salivating, but if you see this title in your bookshop I suggest splurging (if you're in the US). It's well worth the import surcharge. 

My fave section? "Upcycling etc." Why? Plenty of "faux real" worthy DIYs. Here's a sampling from the November issue in which the eds revamp the ubiquitous four-legged pine table transformed into a...

...bathroom table (complete with tiles!), inspired writing desk...

...kitchen table or cute console table.

Photographs by Mel Yates. Styling by Miranda Watchorn. Livingetc, November 2009.

What would you create?