I love the clothes from the Marimekko Fall 2008 collection, especially these designed by Samu-Jussi Koski. I would love to wear them all…

Flavia tunic / Becky dress / Meri dress

Karin dress / Kamilla dress

Even though our coffee table cost $15 and really needs to be refinished (yes, still), I’m a coaster kind of person. I’m just not into having puddles of water collecting under our glasses. I’ve never understood the appeal of hard, non-absorbant coasters, though, and have always preferred the simple cork ones from IKEA.

Unfortunately, Fritz also likes cork coasters. As in, likes to shred them into tiny pieces, leaving us wondering if he ate any and if he needs to go to the hospital. Seriously, if you turn your back for 10 seconds, he’s eating a coaster.

Well, we found the PERFECT coasters last weekend at our favorite store in Beacon, Iron Fish. They’re marble (which nicely matches our fireplace), and they’re LINED WITH CORK! All the durability of a hard coaster, with all of the absorbancy of cork. Wheee! Plus, they stack nicely.

Sorry, Fritz. You’re going to have to go back to chewing on the chairs instead.

I have had pretty much the same haircut (with slight variations) since I was 3 years old. Maybe longer, even, but this example from 1978 is the earliest I can find. Every now and then I try something different, but it always comes back to blunt bangs, cut short enough that the expanse of skin above my brows is roughly equivalent to size of my eyelids. I noticed the consistency of that proportion a few years ago, and I do my best to maintain it.

When my bangs get too long, I get crabby. Trims usually happen past midnight, in a fit of frustration and inability to wait for an appointment with a professional. That’s where I was last night, after watching Project Runway sandwiched by DNC speeches by Bill Clinton and Joe Biden.

Now I feel like me again.

I love black as an accent color (ugh, I hate the term “accent color”! It’s almost as bad as “feature wall”) in a predominantly white room. I’ve used black paint (Benjamin Moore Toucan Black, a rich, inky-purply black) in various places throughout my house in small amounts—on the stair treads…the fireplace inserts…

…and the pocket doors.

I’ve been thinking about doing a whole wall (moldings and trim included!), though, after seeing these pictures:

(from Belle Magazine, via Emmas Designblogg)

(from Inspace Locations)

(from Domino)

(print ad for Ligne Roset)

The key to making this look good, I think, is in painting the moldings the same color. I don’t love black (or very dark) walls with white trim—the effect is a bit “cartoonish” for me, especially in an older house with more ornate wood/plaster work. The high contrast can make the moldings seem a little overly precious, but a monochromatic floor-to-ceiling (or at least to the picture rail!) paint job looks more modern.

At my work-office, I try to keep my space very clean and tidy. I don’t have control over things like desks (they are awful wood-grain laminate) or carpet (industrial-grade blue), but over the past 10 years I’ve tried to make it a little more personal.

I have plants in the window. When I bought them, they were teeny-tiny. I’ve had to re-pot them twice (potting plants is a weird thing to do at work, but it had to be done!). I feel happy to see them every day, and to give them water from my bottle. I am very lucky to have this huge, old window to look out during the day! It’s especially wonderful when it’s snowing.

I keep a set of resuable plastic utensils here, as well as a supply of chemical-laden drink mix packets that encourage me to drink more water throughout the day. I also buy my own storage boxes (like this pink one, which holds CDs) instead of using the ugly black plastic ones from the office-supply catalog.

There are pictures of my loved ones, of course.

I keep my paper clips and rubber bands in a little green glass Marimekko dish. I bought this clock at a stoop sale years ago, and it worked perfectly until recently, when the cord suddenly started to dissolve and ooze green goo everywhere. It’s just for decoration now.

I have a Cable Turtle to control the slack on my extra-long mouse cord. I use an ugly, old Logitech mouse instead of a pretty Apple one because I’m so used to it. It’s hard for me to adjust to anything new!

My beloved Sigg bottle, which I fill up at least 4 times a day.

If you work outside of your house, what do you keep in your office to make your days a little happier?

In line with my current obsession with all things grey, I am really itching to paint at least ONE room in my house (most likely the living room) a very, very pale shade of misty grey. Every time I see a photo of a grey room, I say OOOOOOOOOooooo and move a little closer to making a trip to the paint store.

This looks very much like my living (1) room (2) in terms of layout and architecture, and I think that’s a curtain solution that could work for me. Maybe with window film on the lower panes?

Yet another convincing case for white-painted floorboards!

Oh! Those little yellow lamps!

We actually saw (and lusted after) this very same sofa last year at the Rhinebeck Antiques Fair. Doesn’t that rich, orange-red look great with pale grey? I love how it curves into the bow-front of the house, too.

(All photos from LivingEtc, my most favorite magazine.)

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of Peony flats from Clarks (part of their Indigo line), and they have quickly become my favorite shoes. No, they aren’t sexy, but they are perfect. Super-soft leather insole, rubber sole that’s flat (but not too flat), slightly pointed toe (but not too pointy), a bit of patent leather detail at the bottom, and so, so, SO comfortable. I really needed a pair of simple shoes that are more durable than my usual thin-soled ballet flats, which tend to wear out very quickly on city sidewalks. These seem to be very well made. I love them.

They’re on super-sale at Clarks stores, by the way—I got mine for $40, much less than they are at Zappos.

I never saw myself as the Clarks type (let’s be honest, most of their women’s shoes are hideous), but I think I want these (in black), too. I bet they’re really comfortable, too.

p.s. I’m not wearing tapered jeans, it’s an illusion! They’re just extra-long skinnies that are bunched up around my ankles. I don’t want anybody getting the wrong idea…

I decided that my scabby old black file cabinet (at my work-office, not at home) needed some sprucing up, so I gave it some teardrops. I put a sheet of thick, glossy paper through the Xyron, then cut out shapes with scissors. Instant, removable stickers!

The Fall 2008 Soïa & Kyo collection is just as wonderful as I was hoping it would be! I wish there were more down coats to choose from (this winter I really will buy a down coat instead of suffering in a wool one on the coldest of cold days), but it’s hard to complain.

Decisions, decisions. I want them all! See the full collection here.

Old Navy has long been my secret source for cheapy-cheap shoes of decent quality (I buy a lot of clothes there, too; the quality is much better than other super-cheap stores like H&M or Forever 21). They’ve outdone themselves with their latest collection, though. Look at all of these great COLORS!!

You could own all nine pairs of shoes pictured above for a mere $231.85. Madness!

The weekend scavenger strikes again!

We’d been planning to buy a three-tier Kartell Componibili unit for a while now, but hadn’t yet gotten around to it. It’s a good thing we put it off, because while making a routine trip to the DWR Annex over the weekend, we found one at a huge discount.

It was covered with black scuff marks, but knowing the power of the wonder that is the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (they really are magic, I swear!!), I was certain I could make it look like new again in about 5 minutes. And I did!

The price, you ask? $29. Yes. For those of you keeping track, that’s an 82% discount.

Veggie burgers and onion rings at SoHo Park, and an amazing painted door on Broadway.

Suddenly, it feels like Fall might be coming soon. (Remind me of this in a week when it’s roasting hot and humid again.)

I don’t normally post home tours, but these photos by Anastassios Mentis of a loft in Chinatown are so beautiful I have to keep a record of them. You can see the full set of photos at Apartment Therapy.

Look at the whites, the neutrals, the use of small, restrained (restraint is the key here) amounts of color! Perfection. I love that it’s not a super-fancy-expensive-looking space, either—lots of IKEA mixed with a few high-end pieces. Totally inspirational!

Dead, gone to heaven.

How great are those rugs?! And that IKEA bookshelf looks a billion times nicer when some of the sections are left empty.

Even a spool of twine can be beautiful! I love this photo. Love! The light is like a dream.

Tiny, perfect bedroom. Another amazing rug.

RED! GO! YES! I hope that little scarf is always poking out of the drawer, because it really makes the photo, yeah?

(photos by Anastassios Mentis)

Last week, Evan did something that took a lot of courage—he let go of a huge portion of a collection that had started to own him as it grew too large to manage or even appreciate. I asked him to write about the experience, since I think it’s something that a lot of people will face at some point in their lives.

At the risk of melodrama, the picture above represents a big part of my childhood which was just sold for a fraction of its value. I recently decided that it was time to let go of most of my comic books. I’ve been reading comics since I was about 6. Tales of the Teen Titans 44 is what made them a lifelong obsession for me. Maybe it was Dick Grayson’s shedding of the Robin mantle and transition from teen to adult as Nightwing that did it, but more than likely it was that sweet blue and yellow disco costume.

Since then, my collection had swelled to over 6000 comics, filling around 40 boxes. While it’s still fairly modest by fanboy standards, it does take up a lot of space. Once Anna and I bought our house, I knew pretty quickly this was going to be a problem. I think I had been mentally preparing myself for letting go over the last few years. Storage wasn’t the only issue—I’ve been downsizing a lot of my possessions over the last couple of years, be it books, CDs, DVDs, etc. Like plenty of other people, I found that getting rid of the clutter made me feel a lot better. However, my comics were a different beast altogether for nostalgic reasons.

I didn’t get rid of everything; I’m keeping a small amount of books that actually mean something. Some of them are worth money, some of them aren’t, but what’s left is all equally valuable to me. It may just be some oddball comic that I have a soft spot for, like the Uncanny X-Men at the State Fair of Texas (trust me, you don’t want to know what they were doing there, but sadly, it didn’t involve corn dogs and pig races), or something more significant. For instance, I remember buying Iron Fist 14 (which also happens to be the first appearance of Sabretooth, if you care), in the summer of 1989 at a comic book show run by Fred Greenberg’s East Coast Conventions in the basement of the Hyatt hotel in New Brunswick, NJ. I paid $14. My friend James and I used to go to those cons every month, like clockwork, and I’ve got a lot of great memories from those times.

But honestly, this feels right; good, even. I still love comics and I’m not giving them up. I’ve drastically reduced the number of titles I read monthly over the last few years, going for quality over quantity. I feel pretty confident that I’ll never be owned by them again. When I flip through my collection now, I’m happy to see that there’s no filler and I can trace every book to a time and place. In the end, curating has allowed me to enjoy more by having less.

Last Tuesday, I helped a guy load up his truck with over 30 comic boxes. He’ll sell it off in pieces on eBay, and pick at the bones until there’s nothing left. And I’m totally fine with that.

(posted by Evan)

The plumbers are finally done, the dogs are sleepy (me too), and now it’s time to get the house clean.

Tomorrow we’re heading out to my sister’s house in Connecticut to see lots of family, two- and four-legged. What are you doing this weekend?

I’ve been envisioning a flat-weave, graphic rug for the bathroom floor, and this photo (originally posted by Victoria) captures exactly what I have in mind.

So far, I haven’t been able to find a rug that’s just the right size for my tiny bathroom (it has to be large enough to extend under the tub legs a bit, but not so large that it covers too much of the marble hexagons), but I have found several that are close to perfect otherwise. I’ll keep them in mind for other areas of the house!

Weaving Southwest Navajo rug

Conran Fez flat weave rug

American Country Navajo rug

Missoni Zig-Zag rug