stuff-i-like

Cozy heating solution for the winter

2009-11-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Winter is coming in New England, so heating your house is always challenging. I am currently using bio-fuel, a bit more costly than regular oil, but it feels better to breeze and for the environment in general. I wish we could all more ecologically deal with energy consumption to have a bigger impact on our environment.

Recently, I was investigating the idea of using under floor heating. I was always wandering about my blood circulation if I would feel the heat coming from under the floor, but if it is softly regulated throughout your apartment, it works great. Apparently underfloor heating is also an economical and environmentally smart solution, by reducing fuel consumption, so it can be used as an alternative to more conventional heating solution. I am not sure how to equip an old building with underfloor heating, at least floor insulation or heating mats, but some companies have it all figured it out. It can also give the home more of a winter feel and a cozy atmosphere. Nothing more comfortable than a piece of warmth under our cold winter feet. Imagine your cat rolling on the warm carpet, and you and your boyfriend being able to play backgammon on the floor!!

Super cute jewelry cases

2009-07-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

You need to be prepared - an impromptu cocktail party, a quick trip to a warm beach, or a non-stop wedding weekend. This lovely travel sized jewelry case will keep your valuables protected without taking up half your suitcase! Small enough to fit in your purse, but with multiple compartments, this case is perfect for storing those essential pieces you always want with you. Case measures 6" x 2.5" x 1.25". Leather exterior, velvet interior. Found on Delight.com

Goth design ...

2009-07-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

So talented. Smoke series by maarten baas for moooi

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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A classic that we love: Night Carafe

2009-07-05T04:43:00.000-07:00

This set, including Carafe and Glass, is the work of a Japanese family-owned business that’s been producing glassware for generations. Made of blown glass, the Carafe has a spout for easy pouring and the Glass serves as a lid when stored on top of the Carafe. The Night Carafe may be intended for the bedside table, but its elegant presentation and functional design make it just as suitable for your office, study or dining area. Stands 7.5" tall and holds up to 15oz of liquid.

Found ->here<-

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Knitted toys

2009-05-02T14:15:00.000-07:00

I discovered Sara Carr who designs awesomely cute toys, pillows, gadgets. Please to meet you Henry!

Meet Henry

Henry has been knitted with lambswool and filled with polyester stuffing.
His main body is striped and the under belly and ears are plain. The eyes have been hand sewn using wool.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Shape does it all ... not function!

2009-01-13T16:01:00.000-08:00

Soon I will get this Calf & Half by Fred Studio discovered on ID magazine.

For post–slow food, post–avian flu, design-conscious foodies, there's the Calf & Half, a creamer whose distinctly shaped, double-walled construction never lets you forget the provenance of your food. Designed by the Rhode Island–based Fred Studio, it's available through Charles & Marie!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Natural gifts for the winter

2008-12-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Cute Beeswax Candles found at the Dharma Boutique!

Beeswax burns longer and produces a warmer glow than paraffin candles, and also generates healthy negative ions, which eliminate dust, pollen and allergens from the air we breathe. Perfect for the eco-friendly candle lover!

Winter season is up and running, the gift period is here, stores start being congested... I will not reveal yet what I am preparing to offer, but I will share insights on gifts that are trendy these days. For instance when sustainability and ethnic gifts go hand in hand, one can propose anything from the eco-friendly candles pictured above to Vintage Statues, marble deities statues that originally served in temple! If they happen to be damaged, they are retired from the place, later repaired, placed in purifying sacred water (like Rajasthan's Pushkar Lake or the Ganges River), and offered online... How neat! Creating your own inspirational room or looking for a special gift, you can combine candles with colorful devotional art, reproduction paintings in antique frames or lithographs from India.

You can wrap your favorite room with traditional textiles, combining the right texture to the right colors and patterns. Hand-embroidered tribal fabrics from all over the world are very appealing and fit really well with an eco-friendly interior.

A KGB lamp!

2008-12-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Designed by Dana Gordon, this lamp switches between two modes according to its position, regular white light or UV light which exposes the personal graffiti on the walls. The KGB lamp was part of the IDII exhibition in Salone del Mobile 2006 (designed with Alejandro Zamudio). I like the contextual integration of the used technology. Usually UV lighting is used to make things "appear" on a picture, or other fun applications seen on fabric. What I love about this project is the use of UV light within a context that marries the interrogation setup to the revelation, this offered by a specific technology.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Kitchen design

2008-10-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

Traditionally, the kitchen was used to cook while families and friends gathered in the living room. The 50’s modern design did a touch up on the kitchen. It opened the kitchen to a much more festive place to hang out. Not only housewives discovered new kitchen designs that conveniently organize items per compartments, but the kitchen became a place that resonated with freedom and allowed to express an identity.

When I select elements for my kitchen, I consider always comfort and necessity in pair with charm, elegance and originality. How would I cook in a gloomy place?! The kitchen is a place that needs to express beauty, made attractive through colors, patterns and object selection. With all this care, no wander that the kitchen is now a place where my roommates and I hang out much more than in our living room! Cooking is a social activity and my kitchen needs to reflect that my friends and family are welcome to share the cooking. In my kitchen, I keep needing more counter space. A great Kitchen Designer is fundamental in helping you discover the right balance between open, counter and common space area.

Forms, proportions, colors all contribute to the kitchen experience. Chairs need to be able to disappear quickly so that I can navigate freely! I wish I could vary the light in making it soft around the dining table area and crisp on the kitchen counter. In sum, good kitchen design is key for transgressing the traditional kitchen into a shared space for creative and collaborative cooking discussions!

Superior Ovaries Spoon

2008-09-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

Etsy is so sweet. I just found this amazing series of spoons.
"Another lovely lady, ready balance work and life.
A flower with superior ovaries, tools to conquer the kitchen, and a sewing pattern for a wedding dress.
This original painting is a conceptual work of finding oneself in third wave feminism, ready to hang on the wall and pretty up your space!
Complete with a sawtooth hanger on the back, ready for display. Approximately 11" tall x 2" wide."

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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A fireplace for this winter

2008-09-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

On the way home ...

Winter is approaching. Soon the leaves will fall, the air will hardened, and the breeze will freeze. The outside will be gorgeously white and cold, while our home will be cosy and warm. Soon this winter, nothing will feel better than a welcoming home with a fireplace with its cracking wood and warm flickering light.

When you are leaving in the city, one might think that it is not always possible to have a fireplace. Apparently, one can invest in many different kinds of fireplaces, as proposed in this site with an extensive list of fireplaces: with both Electric Fires and Gas Fires. They stock all the leading brands of fireplace manufacturers. Styles vary from traditional to very modern and contemporary.

So it is not always possible to have a fireplace with chimney, but it is possible to reproduce the warmth from the light and even the cracking of the wood with gas fires. Before digging in their catalog of fireplaces, one question that I had concerned installation. How can we install such equipment, most probably requiring modifying a large portion of a room. Apparently, the installation of Gas Fires can be fitted into most existing fireplaces. Some Gas Fires (Fanned Flue Gas Fires for instance) are designed for homes without chimney or flue. Electric Fires' installation is often as simple as placing the fireplace where you want it and plugging it in and obviously maintenance free! Solid Fuel Fires is more complicated as it required agreements with building regulations. It seems that a hearth can be part of every home!

Aesthetics for fireplaces vary from the traditional brick or oak one to the very modern framed fireplace that hangs on the wall. I was impressed by the wall-mounted electric fire that operates via touch sensitive glass. It is interesting to reflect on the history of the fireplace. A fireplace always stood massively on the ground, depending on the structure of the all house. Now such symbol is entirely transformed: the fireplace is mobile like a painting ...

wall-mounted electric fire

Nice sofa indeed

2008-08-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

My beautiful backside by designers Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien ... not bad for a modest $14.325 . I love the materials used: wool and felt.

My Beautiful Backside is a collection of seats whose backrests are a composition of highly coloured, floating cushions in various shapes. The wider your seat, the more cushions you can have. Our use of oversize symbols, such as the buttons on cushion backs, is a way of conveying a variety of messages. These symbols also provide a means of customising each chair, making it unique, just as you would add little distinguishing touches to an article of clothing. We used a new wool fabric designed by Giulio Ridolfo for Kvadrat. We teamed it up with felt because it's a combination that reminds us of old-fashioned clothes with stiff starched collars. We also designed a new daybed, called Princess, with layers of mattresses. The top mattress is covered with a composition of different objects and since they draw inspiration from a modern princess they're embroidered in gold and silver.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Designing lighting

2008-06-25T15:00:00.001-07:00

Fred Eerdekens designs the shadows of objects!

The more I live, the more I suspect light to be responsible for my space design. Light takes all the credit. Without a welcoming light design, you fail to see the subtle velvet of your sofa, without elegant light design your guest can feel unease, without soft lighting you can feel a stranger in your own refuge. I always spend most of my time choosing, replacing and experimenting with bulbs of different sizes, intensities, colors, shapes and design. Their projection and their hardness allow me to sculpt my space. I start from nothing, an empty room, then I add the light and I sculpt by placing one object, one furniture at a time.

There is a book I recommend on the subject, a book that is referred to regularly in interior design and architecture:
Lighting by Design by Sally Storey. It proposes ways to include colored light, patterns, playing with light and shadows, both for interior and exterior design.

Tips & Tricks
I design my own lamps, but only when they are meant to be small and on the ground floor. For the ceiling, companies provide more efficient and safe solution for progress lighting. I recently used mounted lights on the ceiling that offer a soft diffused atmosphere. One trick that works really well is to create under cabinet lighting. Ikea has quick & affordable solutions, but for a wider range of styles and systems, specialized companies are the way to go. You can also easily create vanity lighting: I find that bath lighting using mirrors inspires a satisfying presence!

I have not yet experimented much with outdoor light design. Right now I am redesinging my garden and will post on my light experiments. Again this book is a wonderful source of inspiration for landscape lighting!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love

Talking cups

2008-05-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

For these soy sauce, salt, and pepper containers, nendo decided to differentiate between the three through a combination of sight and sound, or words as sound.
Instead of relying on symbols and letters, the mouth of each container is the shape that a human mouth would make when saying the name of each product: "yu" for "shoyu", which means "soy sauce" in　Japanese, “shi” for “shio”, which means salt, and "ko" for "kosho", which means "pepper".
In an age when we rely increasingly on e-mail for communication, and conversation fades from the dinner table, "talking" subtly links people and things through the power of the texture and sound of spoken Japanese.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Cozy Tea

2008-05-06T18:35:00.001-07:00

If you want to keep your tea cozy in the winter, then this tea comforter is for you. Reversible it provides different tea pot looks for your most aesthetic tea parties! Thank you dear Angry Associates!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Disposables glass-glass!

2008-04-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

I recently bought these glasses made of glass cup that cleverly mimic plastic shapes of plastic disposables. I love them, light, transparent and tricky, they are my favorite cups, and my best pick from Paris! You can also find them ->here<- in the US!

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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The cutest bubble gum

2008-04-22T20:29:00.001-07:00

Gubble gum logo and package design by Jesse Kirsh

Wallpaper

2008-04-19T18:52:00.001-07:00

Wallpapers by designers: ->Here<-

When light comes from the dark

2008-04-19T12:00:00.001-07:00

I love lamps, but I love when there is a trick in their design. Something special. I found the "Bilderschirm" designed by 1kilo, a printed paper lampshade. The idea is simple: the design changes when you switch on the light.

This lamp screen made of paper prints is a pretty amazing art piece and product. The idea is that when you switch on the lamp, the patterns transform and complete a scene. The scene is the art piece: all the animals are threatened by hunters and their riffles. Probably a little bit of questioning on our relationship to these pretty animals that we adore, use as ornament and also that sometimes we kill for fun.

To assemble the lamp, you put the "Bilderschirm" around the bulb and insert the tab into the slot. This simple mechanism makes it easy to remove and alternate between lampshades.

Check also the cup that melts and the curtain for the lonely person that Jonah presented on the Make Blog.

Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Stuff My Love
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Pillowing

2008-04-05T20:42:00.000-07:00

This super soft pillow was created by Ella Fint.

Towel moment

2008-03-30T16:34:00.001-07:00

I am always looking for the ideal towels. High quality, soft, trendy, not too trendy, simple, underground looking, with style. Well I have found a set that I like at this design store.

Marimekko’s high-quality terrycloth products are made of pure cotton. The range of products includes towels of different sizes, bathrobes, slippers, wash mitts and bath mats in both pattern and single-coloured terrycloth. There are also soaps and shower curtains matching the terrycloth products. The patterns and colours of Marimekko’s cosmetics bags have also been designed to match the bathroom textiles.

The best cd player

2008-03-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

Few years ago I bought this awesome CD player from MUJI. I found an interview on Fukasama, the designer of this mythical CD player.

"Japanese people cherish the whole process of how an object is gradually formed and then is turned back into decay, probably more so than the actual object itself. In nature, the Japanese are not really the kind of people to want so many things. With an object, what is more important than the design itself is where and how in everyday life it was used. Even things like beauty and art were sought in ordinary and everyday objects, not something decorative and so special. People nowadays are forgetting the fact that the beauty within lies deep within simplicity." - Fukasama

A game for kitten!

2008-03-15T22:53:00.001-07:00

Icosahedron, jeux pour chat, Paris 1998

Icosahedron is a game for cats. The cat moves into the interior of the volume by one facet. Hidden in this shelter, taking advantage of holes, it can look and react to what is happening around him. In the action, this unstable shelter may start to roll and become an infernal ball with legs that arise. Via. Link

Light + cut

2008-03-15T01:09:00.000-07:00

Metal walls to create shadow ghosts designed Mikromart.

A tempting interior design

2008-03-15T00:45:00.001-07:00

Picture by Eugenio Recuenco