M&Co . Around the house

In the greenhouse

2009-04-01T22:41:44+02:00

Top: Burberry.com, From left: Coach.com, Pietdesign.nl and Ken Marten

Everyone seems to be in the greenhouse these days, and suddenly casual gardening is fashionable again. I love Burberry's new ads with models in a casual and quite messy English greenhouse! The styling is quite eccentric and with a very British, upper class country look. Also Coach are doing casual, "homegrown" flowers in their latest ad, and I love the cute little matrems. I'm growing these from seed in my basement this year, and think they will be a supercute addition to my garden, and also quite nice as I remember my grandmother growing these here when I was a kid.

If you like me have no room for a greenhouse, the cute mini greenhouse from Pietdesign would be perfect for the window sill.

Oh and you have to check out the super talented design from florist Ken Marten, using the Primula elatior Gold Lace, for a stunning decoration at The Connaught Hotel. So cute, and I love the contrast of the formal and elegant with the casual Primulas in terracotta pots. Stunning work!

Currently, I'm using my basement as a greenhouse and I have installed greenhouse lights to better the conditions for my seedlings, but one day I hope to have my own little greenhouse...how about you? Any garden dreams? ;-)

Largom.com

2009-03-04T10:11:17+01:00

Images: largom.com

Today I got an email from British and Irish online magazine Largom introducing me to their site filled with good design ideas, product reviews, renovation and building projects and some gorgeous private homes, so I thought I'd pass the link on for you too to enjoy :-)

Sowing seeds

2009-03-02T23:12:25+01:00

Image: Allposters.com

During the last 2 months I've been preparing for summer sowing both annual and perennial seeds. In my basement I have a craft room where I've installed plant lights to give my plants a head start in the spring, and I've also sown some perennial seeds outside (In plastic boxes covered with snow) So far I have trays with seedlings of white Viola wittrockiana, pale yellow Viola Cornuta, Petunia Baby Duck (Its super cute!), white pompom Matrems, Artemesia and Primula Auriculas.

Especially the Primulas I'm quite excited about (Not that they will flower this year), and especially after reading about them in Country Living, and seeing the incredibly cute Auricula Theatre!

This is what Spring looks like!

2009-02-24T19:14:20+01:00

Top image: Horchow Spring Catalog, Fabric swatch Chloe's imagination by Tina Givens, Fabric Swatch Drawingroom by Anna Maria Horner, Collection of Seltzer bottles at Voila! via 1stdibs

Lots of fresh, inspiring colors! I never cared much for lilac, except for a horrible period in my preteens when I had a pair of lilac balloon pants and a fuzzy lilac mohair jumper, my mum knitted that I wore almost everyday for a whole year...iiiik! But the top image from Horchow really appealed to me, and made me in such a Spring mood! (If only the 2m of snow outside my door would melt away, everything would be close to perfect ;-)) Silver and Lilac is such a good, and classic combination, a bit too sweet for my personal taste, but when mixed with the soft chartreuse wall, gilded details and splashes of color it looks so fun and vibrant, while still decidedly elegant.

Speaking of Lilac, visit Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University on their Lilacs Sunday the 10th of May. It supposed to be a magnificent collection of different Lilac varieties!

From MyVintageVogue's ever inspiring Flickr collection of vintage magazine images.

Small Spring 09 - Cute as ever!

2009-02-19T11:43:51+01:00

The ever adorable small magazine is out with their issue nr. 9, marking the beginning of their third year! Congratulations, and keep inspiring us for years to come!

Economic crisis, will we see an effect on interiors?

2009-02-17T15:56:39+01:00

Iconic photo "Nina + Simone" by William Klein, Louis Poulsen Lamp 20th Century Art + Antiques 4 pm vi 1st Dibs, Set of 60s Chairs at Talisman via 1st Dibs.

I've been wondering if the current economical situation will be, or perhaps already are, visible in the way we decorate our homes? Of course with less money around, many of us will have less money to spend on our decorating, but how will that manifest itself in our interiors? Will we continue splurging on our interiors "because we deserve it", but wait with expensive buys like cars and new houses, or will we be less impulsive in our decorating purchases and only buy the things necessary for a comfortable life? Will we buy more vintage and visit the flea market more frequently, or will we go for cheap massproduced goods?

I have so many questions about this, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

With fashion its said that in economic boom times the hemline goes up, and the edges get sharper. Is it like that with interiors as well? Not exactly the hemlines...but what about the edges? The futuristic style of the 60s certainly had harder edges than the more rounded, soft style of the 70s, and the hard, modernistic lines of the 80s was a far cry from the soft, cushioned look of the early 90s. Maybe it has nothing to do with economics at all, and that it is just the image we like to see, a comfortable pattern, and a sense of order? After all, through time there has always been styles contrasting each other both in fashion and in interiors. In the 80s we had not only sleek modernism, but also a country feeling style with soft floral patterns, and delicate pastel colors... and although angular shaped furnitures, and modernistic interiors has been de rigeur since the late 90s, for maybe a majority of people the contrasting and very nostalgic, shabby chic style has been their preference.

And what about the colors we use? Looking through interior magazines I see more dark rooms with deeper color combinations than before, but is that a early result of the financial crisis, or just a seasonal contrast to the predominantly white interiors that has swept over us for several decades? Most likely its the latter, as interiors usually are long term projects, and conceived well in advance of interior photoshoots. Its interesting to see that Pantone has chosen Mimosa as the color for 2009, so I would say at least colorwise, our future looks bright.

In history the best and most innovative designs have emerged just after a recession, when designers are forced to work with what they have, and explore new techniques for creating functional and more affordable products and solutions. Certainly it will be interesting to see, in the coming year, what direction interiors will take.

I'm quite optimistic, how about you?

A new year! :-)

2009-02-16T18:51:50+01:00

Ok I'm a bit slow, but I've finally noticed that 2009 has arrived, and got my head out of work and my plant encyclopedia, and are ready to start posting on a regular basis again :-) Thank you for all your sweet comments and mails while I was "away"!!! I'm in the progress of answering you all now, and updating myself on what has been going on in the blogging world for the past month!

Oh, and the picture..(I know its way to late for amaryllises..but they've been blooming until now ;-)) I've fallen in love with a cheap vase and I'm thinking of buying several more, and in different sizes, and painting them yellow ? What do you think?

Just a quick update

2008-12-09T22:10:29+01:00

Amaryllis Chico in bloom right now :-)

Just wanted to say hi, and tell everyone that I'm doing fine. I've had an exhustïng autumn working long hours, and having pneumonia that did'nt go away easily, so I've been quite exhausted.. But pneumonia has cleared now so things are looking brighter. Workwise I'm still working looong hours, and getting little free time to blog, but I enjoy my work so no complaints ;-)

Thank you for all the supportive, and uplifting comments and emails lately! You are just too sweet!!!

This weekend I'm going to Paris for a short break, and I cannot wait to see all the magic christmas decorations. I'll take some photos and post when I'm back!

Take care all of you!

Love,

Monica

Balancing work and play

2008-11-16T13:37:21+01:00

You might have noticed that it's been quite a slow autumn over here... balancing my new job and my free time is difficult, especially since my work is also my hobby ;-) So how do you do it girls? Advice needed!!

Usually I start work at 7, and depening on wether I work from home or at the office I'll be working until late in the evening, especially if the husband is not at home, then I'll be working until he arrives home at 22.00. Even in the weekend I cannot seem to stop working, to get something fixed before the new week starts. Its not that I plan to work like this all my life, but beeing in a new job, its lots of things to learn, and also lots of new projects going on since the company is in a phase of change. On a normal day, I just can't find time to do much other than cooking and caring for my dogs. The evenings I don't work late I usually spend time with the husband, doing the laundry and cleaning the house.... but it leaves me with little time to do my favorite things; crafting and blogging...

I've been thinking of scheduling me time, but with me, the creativity do not exactly flow when I'm restricted to a specific time...usually my most creative moments comes when things are quiet around me..

I see my friends having the time to meet up during the week, and I wish I could join them...but if I do not spend my freetime on cleaning, the house would be a mess (not that it is'nt at times ;-))

So I need your adivce and stories on how you manage to balance work and play! Please?! I know many of you are hardworking with your own craft business, or just like me, with a busy job, and blogging and crafting as a hobby :-)

Great Christmas gift idea!

2008-11-09T23:31:15+01:00

Image: AMH Design, LLC

Love the contemporary needlepoint kits from AMH Design! Hmm..I'm thinking my family will get lots of embroidered photo albums this year ;-) I love doing embroidery, and I love getting it ...makes me feel really appriciated, when someone put that much work in to a present :-)