Oh, Mary, Mary.

I'm perusing my favorites on etsy.com (brilliant idea to head there for art, lovely Jess), loving all of the gorgeous wares and I felt compelled to share the site miss quite contrary. It's a dreamy and odd place, filled with aging strange photographs and eerie antique medical illustrations, and rife with images of a midwestern landscape that, most likely, only exists in my memory. I will most definitely purchase items from her shop for the re-creation of my bedroom.

If one has any sense for the strange, wonderful and slightly creepy, one simply must visit miss quite contrary. Mustn't one?

And then there's this lil' guy, with whom I am in love:

In other news, the lace balls are halfway done and photos are coming soon. Them bitches are super time consuming to create (sweet baby J!)! Regardless, things are moving along. I now have an adult owl and an owlet in my room, one wall completed, and wallpaper on it's way. 

Dear Jess, 

Eye <3 U and miss you like stupit-craaaazy, yo. Wish our brains could have a reunion. 

Lovelovelove, 

N

Art Buying Blitz

So, of course, we are on the same wavelength despite the distance between us. How immensely comforting is that? I am also re-decorating my bedroom as, *gasp*, I have finally moved my sewing studio to a new location. That's not my house. Or more specifically, my bedroom.

Huge.

This is huge.

My purchases so far have included a 100 year old whitewashed wrought iron bed frame and a wardrobe trunk form the same era. I'm on the hunt for a dresser. Torn between juxtaposing a mid-century piece with the antiques or staying on theme. Thoughts?
I have the paint narrowed down to four shades of soft black. I'm making a cave.

The most fun I've had, however, is buying art on Etsy. I tried to keep to an ethereal, slightly dark (contradictory?)moody palate and subject matter.

Here's what I got:

Lovely Print of Northern Ireland by Marco Suarez.


A great deal on an artists proof from the series Human Nature and a large scale black and white poster by Debbie Carlos.

And a few small airy prints from British artist Olivia Jeffries.

How to make lace balls...no, not those kinds of balls. Decorative balls.

Long time no see-es!

I'm embarking on a project to make little droplet-like balls that I saw in one of my favorite Chicago stores, Asrai Garden.

My lovely friend, Katie, and I popped in there the other day and these magnificently delicate balls made from lace caught our attention. They hung from the ceiling as a part of the window dressing. Gorgeous.

I'm currently re-designing my bedroom and the style I'm going for is the deep dark woods, a dream forest. Darren Waterston's paintings (especially his earlier works) are a huge inspiration for my room and something about the orbs hanging in Asrai's storefront reminded me of some of the ethereal objects that live in his paintings.

So I've decided to make them. I'm planning on making them into a large installation over the bed in my bedroom. I'd like to string up chandelier crystals and some kind of lights up in there too. I'll let you know how it goes.

As of tonight, I'm cutting out the lace, then imma gonna sew 'em right up around balloons. I'm still dealing with the problem of how to make the lace stiff. PVA? Rabbit glue? Elmers glue? I even researched clear acrylic spray paint? Time will tell and I'll share my results!

All my hugs,

N

Eliot Lee Hazel

The lovely Hannah Louise just posted Eliot Lee Hazel's work on facebook and I couldn't shake the urge to post it on We Two. I'll post a few here, but do yourself a favor and check out the website.

DEUX: The Friend List Grows!

Also definitely on the friend list: Amy Sedaris. Oh, Amy Sedaris. If Jess and I could nervously, and admiringly babble incomprehensible nonsense at anyone, it would be Amy Sedaris.
As I've said before, I've been taking this interior design class at SAIC and as an example of an extreme interior, my instructor projected an image of Ms. Sedaris, in her living room surrounded by fake cakes, hanging bats and a painted bust of a horse (among other animal portraits). When the image came up, projected onto the white, art school wall, it was like a vibrant fake ham and bats explosion. My instructor indicated that, as designers, we (as he chuckled) needed to prepare ourselves for people such as Amy Sedaris, and that there were people out there with varying tastes. Oh, but sweet baby jebus, her taste is aMAZing! If only there were more like her. I am in-love with her brains.

In an interview with New York Magazine, she said that she collects "things on a whim and worry later about how they fit my décor. For many people, this wouldn’t be a big problem. But without any preplanning, why don’t you try and figure out where the antique wax medical model of syphilis goes—above the table with the taxidermy duck or next to the papier-mâché Cyclops? Hmmm … And now you begin to understand my world."

And on that note, my lovelies, I give you the great interior designing brains of Amy Sedaris.



And a parting shot, just for you, of Amy Sedaris, in diapers and prosthetics, of course.

You're My Baby (Video Design Board)

Just came back from a meeting to organize ideas and solidify dates for creating a Tiger Cry video! If all goes according to plan (which it will with Heather Bodie and her amazing talents) we'll have a video ready for our big album release party this July!

I'm getting really excited to start creating the set and materials for the space, and I can't wait to see what the lovely Geneviève Garcia creates both in her costume design and choreography!

In wickedly uncontrollable anticipation, here is the start of the video design board:








Coming soon...

To DIY Dye For

I have a fabric dyeing project in the works. I'm going to use a technique involving mason jars and powdered Rit. The effect is an ethereal constellation of color and form. I think with a muted pallet, it could make for a lovely "grown up" tie dye look. Here is a tutorial on jar dyeing. And here is my inspiration board:






Fourth photo via fotoforest
All others via julia. - pure at heart

I'll post pictures of the results, but only if they're pretty.

Eye heart u, Wary Meyers.

My passion for interior design was recently stoked by a crafty lil' book by Wary Meyers, a husband and wife duo made up of Linda Wary and John Meyers, called Tossed and Found. These lovely people not only bust-it-up in the interior design world (see top photo), but they are also magicians with objects that have been lost amongst the midst of American rubbish. They uncover these objects, love them properly and then polish them up for repurposed renewal (see their lights above made from plastic planters)!


An aside (and a little photo for you): in our teen years, and on into college and beyond, Jess and I would seek out some truly awesome and terrifying thrift stores for finds that had long since been lost to mainstream retail. My favorite of these finds was a road trip to the North Carolina coast from east Tennessee: a taxidermied lamp made from three deer hooves. Yes, it's completely disturbing to think of what may have become of the fourth hoof, but I can whole-heartedly say that I do appreciate the three that I have. And this lamp is the cornerstone of my design ideals, and the touchstone of my house.

At any rate, I'm super inspired by Wary Meyers' ideas and creations, and I'm geeked to head out to Wolff's Flea Market very soon to find hidden treasures for repurposing! Will it ever become sun-shiny here in Chicago? I'll settle for a rain-less day and some weather above 55 degrees.

Dear Summertime,

Please come soon. I would like to plant things before June. Also, I miss you.

Your friend,
Nicolette

Spring has sprung and so am I.

“Spring has sprung and so am I.”

~John Prakapas

Oh, sweet Jebus, spring has finally arrived and I can finally plant all the greenery that I’ve been lusting for all the torturous winter long!

Yesterday, after my beekeeping class at Garfield Park Conservatory where I picked up some veggie seedlings, I trudged around the muddy, freezing and drizzly grounds of Gethsemane Gardens to gather the makings of some of my new projects: a twilight (or moon) garden AND a shade garden emulating the woodland foliage of Michigan (I made a little inspiration piece that I dug up in Mom's backyard (see the saucer planting)! These plants actually start to shine in the evening. Now I won't have to worry about missing out on my garden just because the sun sets! My inspiration came from a lovely book by Lia Leendertz called Twilight Garden. Nerd Alert: this winter I categorized my prospective plants on an Excel spreadsheet and plotted out the winners on graph paper in the shape of my back porch. Nerd.

Michigan in a saucer!!!

The whole gang (below)!

Now, if only the temperature would become warmer so that my threshed-up fingers could plant...sigh. Right now it's 43 degrees. Soon, my babies, soon!