Ferm Living kitchen accessories

Small Spear tray

The kitchen items from Ferm Living would look great in my house: clean lines, soft shapes, earthy pale cool colors. That minty green knocks me out.

Egg cups

Dinner set
(so cute all together)

hicks backseat blanket

Blanket from Pierrepont Hicks

I love this turquoise take on the Hudson Bay blanket. (Saw it on this site, which always features great style.)

elizabeth mayville on etsy

Bird's nest painting

Etsy art two days in a row! Though Elizabeth Mayville does paint animals, I'll focus on something else for a change. Her still lifes are sweet and vivid, with muted colors. They seem like student work, in the best possible way—I mean that they're casual and not trying to be anything more than pretty little pictures.

Cantaloupe painting

Thermos

Grapefruit 3 painting

mrs eliot boots on etsy

Circle garland print

I don't think I've done an etsy post in a while, and I found this artist via BKids. She's got a variety of styles, but I prefer the prints like these that show restraint, simplicity and clean, bright color.

Four Blocks 1 print

Overlapping circles print

Octons reminds me of connectagons

why we broke up

Available from amazon

I read this novel a few weeks ago, and I can't get it out of my head. Written by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) and with illustrations by New Yorker artist and frequent childrens-book author Maira Kalman, it's a breakup letter from 16-year-old Min to her first real boyfriend, Ed. Min's smart, self-aware, and just a little pretentious in a dead-on artsy-girl way. If I were a teenage girl, I'd like it even more than I already do. Or maybe it would hit home too much? Maybe I like Min precisely because I haven't been her in a long time. Either way, Kalman's illustrations make me smile.

Min leaves Ed with this box

Bottle caps from their first conversation

(Handler has also put together a site where you can add your own breakup stories.)

heidi merrick Huntington dress

Heidi Merrick dress in Neapolitan

It's been all over the lady-blogs, but I couldn't resist including it myself. This dress (also available in a different color combination) is perfect. And oh, how I wish I could pull off a fedora. If sack dresses aren't your thing, and you've been wondering what to wear with leather mini shorts, it also comes in a shirt:

Tommy shirt

sanna annukka

Amsterdam card from Huset

I spotted one of Sanna Annukka's perfect prints on Design Sponge*(in this awesome house, to be exact). The Finnish/British designer creates colorful illustrations, prints, and other objects with a clean but folkloric look. Sadly, some of the screenprints at Annukka's shop are out of stock:

Call of the Cuckoo from Annukka's shop

Magic Berry Bush

Spirits of the North
(this one is available)

How good is this Angel of the North lithograph?

Luckily, I found Annukka's beautiful, frame-worthy cards on the excellent Scandinavian-design shop Huset. (Plus they're only a few dollars each, as opposed to the gorgeous but pricey prints above.)

Sun bird

Bird of paradise

Totem

*I've seen tons of inspiring work on Design Sponge lately. Credit where it's due, right?

maya rudolph on fresh air

With John Krasinski in "Away We Go"

Not only did she star in one of the loveliest, sweetest movies of the last few years, but Maya Rudolph gives great interview. I've come to love Terry Gross's interviews on her NPR show, Fresh Air. Yes, Gross can fawn a little bit, especially with, say, handsome actors. But she does her homework, she genuinely likes her subjects (and chooses them well), and she's got a wry, un-show-offy sense of humor herself. And with Maya Rudolph, Gross gets some charming stories about acting with other funny women, taking care of a new baby while working a crazy schedule on "Saturday Night Live," and what she would sound like if sang as herself (as opposed to a spoof of Beyonce or Gwen Stefani). She's humble, thoughtful, a little wistful (talking about her mother, who died when she was young)—and of course extremely funny and entertaining. Also, if you're not watching her on "Up All Night," you should be. The interview aired a few days ago but is online and available as a podcast—which is how I like to get my Fresh Air.

splendid shoes

Morocco flat sandal

I'm not sure about that toe ring. And I don't usually go for red. But I like these new sandals from Splendid. The new shoe line fits right in with Splendid's clean, stripey, sporty aesthetic:

Wishful wedge

Clever wedge

Lustful wedge

casa ninamu

The staircase! The surf poster!

Designtripper just featured this amazing house near Sayulita, on the Pacific coast of Mexico. It's gorgeous, peaceful, minimalist but warm—and filled with shades of blue. The owners, who used to live in Ninamu, built another place a few steps away but rent this out or lend it to friends. Lucky friends.

One of the bedrooms: neutral, bare floors, with a bit of blue.
And that turquoise rocking chair.

Yeah, that looks like my deck here in Bethesda.

Clean, simple row of pots outside

That blue again

The exterior

mooza designs

House numbers

Mooza's acrylic numbers come in a nice clean modern shape and a choice of flowery, stripy patterns. The company—run by two women in Australia—also offers letters, pre-sorted words, and this fun restroom sign–style couple: 

I usually stay away from overly cutesy, overly monogrammed kids' design, but this is a great example of personalization that works:

Names

tammy d getting biz on the crop

I admit that until I looked it up just now, I thought the line (from this song) was "Tammy D getting biz on the clock." Either way, Tamra Davis is most definitely biz: film and TV director (!), mother of two boys, host of an online cooking series, and wife of the mildest Beastie Boy. She hasn't posted much lately, but her site is still worth a look, if only for a glimpse into her fantastic Tribeca apartment; for her simple, appealing recipes; for cameos by the likes of Adam Yauch and Ed Burns—and for her own amazing...normalness. This cute-looking blond woman in yoga pants and a lank ponytail hardly looks like the person who directed this. Or, because you know the girl's got range, this. And yet here she is, sauteing seitan for a vegetarian shepherd's pie.

patkas bow clutch

Oversized clutch

I've had Patkas's etsy page bookmarked for a while now. The clutches and totes and leather cuffs all looked good, but nothing really, really jumped out at me until this little number here. I don't need a new bag—and I need a new suede strap-free clutch even less. But that giant bow sure is pretty.

stella mccartney kids again

Ama dress

I've been a fan of her kids' line for a while. (Too bad it's not still produced by Gap—or priced according to Gap.) And the new collection is just as good as the last one. Check out the recent profile in the Times magazine, too.

Lydia dress

Tazzy top

Pandora top