stu stu studio

Today, AG decided to surprise me with a shopping spree. i'd been complaining about the studio. the computer "desk" is really my drafting table turned into an improvised work station. since it's too tall, and so is the chair, i've been having neck and back aches for some time now. we really needed a real desk! so we went desk and chair hunting. we looked everywhere until we exhausted all the options (like we usually do), until we had our winners!!!

We found a cute little desk, the perfect chair (in a fabulous kelly green color) and we even got a banker's lamp like the one i'd been wanting for a loooong time (also in kelly green!!!). oh, and we also went thrift shopping and got the greatest tchotchke ever... a very retro orange lion figurine! i love it! i LOVE how the studio is coming together, it's starting to feel a bit more mid century mod! for now, a photo montage since the desk and chair will be delivered until next week... CAN'T WAIT!

10 most influential design bloggers

Yesterday i received an e.mail from stan of the home rejuvenation blog, who asked me to help spread the word on the survey going on over there. the point is to basically pinpoint who 'the movers and shakers of the design blogging world are'.

Design inspiration comes from many sources and fields, so for me the most influential design bloggers come in a mixed array of tastes, design fields and professions:

• core77. http://www.core77.com/ they proclaim themselves as an "industrial design supersite" but fall short with the description. it's a design supersite allright, covering all art and design fields.

• decor8. http://decor8.blogspot.com/ holly's blog is like a catalog of fresh design finds and resources, ranging from stationery to sofas. also hosts fun contests!!!

• design*sponge. http://www.designsponge.blogspot.com/grace, a brooklyn based blogger with daily posts about incredible stuff mostly about product and interior design, with lots of sneek peaks inside indie designer homes, which i love.

• desire to inspire. http://desiretoinspire.blogspot.com/ an australian and a canadian, each blogging from their own country, offering tons of visual inspiration, trend alerts, flickr finds and design porn fitting every taste and style.

• face hunter. http://facehunter.blogspot.com/ in his words: "a man out and about in london and beyond: eye candy for the style hungry".

• mocoloco. http://www.mocoloco.com/ modern and contemporary go loco on this canadian design blog. lots of interviews, furniture, objects, architecture and art.

• print and pattern. http://printpattern.blogspot.com/ blogging from the uk with an in-depth look at graphic design in many applications such as wallpaper, fabric, stationery, gift wrap, etc.

• spray glue. http://sprayglue.blogspot.com/ features very cool photography in every post and has lots of reviews in fashion, accessories, books, furniture, technology, etc. directly from south africa to the world.

• style bytes. http://stylebytes.net/ another fashion blog, from oslo. agathe has a passion for fashion and visually documents her inspirations, finds, and how she mixes and matches things.

• the apartment. http://www.theapt.com/ a multidisciplinary creative agency in the fields of architecture, interior design, branding and marketing. the apt broadcast has many mini posts daily about many things and many themes. i love new york and so do they.

So here's my vote, send in yours to:
homereju AT gmail DOT com

bamboo cemetery

before

after

My tropical oasis has become a bamboo cemetery! i was so proud of my garden, and i got compliments on it all of the time, and now all my bamboos are dead! i swear AG and me took good care of them, and the gardener thinks they were sick before they were planted here and didn't survive. only one of them is still struggling to make it. but we have plan B, anyway. and plan B consists of painting the dried up bamboos with chocolate spay paint and leave them there, that is, until we have the budget to replace them...

The good news is, the lillies seem to be very comfortable in their new home, because they are constantly blooming and giving me beautiful flowers!

sometime in the near future...

This is our new project for sometime in the near future. can't say how near, but near. i hope.

The story is, about a couple of months ago while visiting AG's aunt, who lives in what used to be his grandparents house, i spied on grandpa's old room, which is kept intact with his old furniture. that's when i saw this gorgeous mid-century, danish modern chair and it was insta-love. it was just sitting there so lonely in that gloomy room gaining dust... and for the rest of the visit, i could not stop talking about what a great piece it was, and trying to convince the aunt to use that incredible chair! she just looked at me skeptically and said that someday it would be mine.

And someday was in the very near future! because it was AG's anniversary gift to me! his aunt told him he could have it because she knew we really appreciated grandpa's chair and that we would take good care of it. and so it is!!! we have big plans for the chair, i already found the perfect fabric to reupholster it with, it's a silk animal print fabric in golden and silvery tones. it's absolutely fabulous and looks great with the color scheme we have going on in the dining room.


The frame will be repainted in an almost black dark brown, and i just have to decide what side of the fabric to use: the realistic looking leopard spots print or the silvery discreet animal print. i bought the fabric swearing i would use the discreet print which i like best, but sometimes i question myself if i should take the risk and use the other side... what do you think???

the left side of the fabric is the realistic looking leopard spots print, the right side is the silvery discreet animal print.

framed!

Yesterday, we finally got around to dressing up one of the bare walls in the living room. i have to admit, even though the living room is pretty much in shape, the space did seem a little uninhabited because of the huge bare white walls staring at us. it was driving AG crazy. me? not so much. but just because i'm afraid of nail holes in the walls. nail holes in my new walls. nevertheless we got to it. we have had in our possession eight (very nice) frames we found at the dollar store, which we bought on sale (on sale at the dollar store, can you believe it???) for months now, so the time came to hang them up.

I think they turned out nicely. we are still missing framed art to put inside the empty frames, but this is a start. the top frame has a postcard of a couple from the 40's, the middle frame is some abstract art and the bottom frame is a still from melies "le voyage dans la lune" (for the movie producer husband). and today i got decor8 holly's package in the mail with some lovely cards, one which will surely be very soon up on the wall. oh, yes. and there is a framed light bulb. AG says it's dada, very duchamp...

it's not all peaches & cream...

Chaos. my house is currently in chaos. due to the intense raining season, the house is resenting all the water that has been heavily pouring. so now all the disguised flaws that had been silently underlying have started to show.

Everything is being taken care of, since the guarantee covers it. but it is not nice being invaded again in your own home by construction workers and painters. yesterday a chunk of wall in our bedroom was chiseled out to make repairs. today work continues in our bedroom, the studio, the guest room, the guest bathroom and the maid's room... so my house is once again filled with dust, paint, and other types of rubbish...

Counting up to 10, with slow deep breaths trying to keep sane...

the newest addition

The newest addition to casa nuncajamas is AG's birthday present. we had been wanting a wine cellar ever since the wedding, we had it in our registry, but we didn't get it. about two months ago, i got a call from my brother.in.law asking what was i thinking for AG's birthday. two months beforehand i hadn't even started thinking about it! he had the genius idea of getting him the wine cellar he (we) so much wanted. so, after a long quest to find the perfect one, the whole family chipped in for the cellar and the 6 bottles of wine it holds.

Best present ever.

It'll look so good in the kitchen alongside my other appliances, they have the same sleek stainless steel look that matches the stove's backing. happy birthday & independence day, honey!