Trendy Monday Archives - Page 2 of 3

TRENDY MONDAY: GARDEN ORNAMENTS

By Libby|2010-04-23T21:00:00-04:00April 23, 2010|Garden, Home Design, Trendy Monday|

In keeping with the season, and because I am in love with garden ornaments, I thought the timing was just right for this post (and besides, I have had more fun researching it!). As a matter of fact, I’ve had the basic reasearch in my drafts folder for many weeks, just waiting til the time was right. This is it! All gardens everywhere are beginning to look so wonderful and once again my mood (yours too?) is what…..? joyous? playful? optimistic? Yes, that describes it all right.

Here is an assortment of garden goodies, from the very serious, classic accoutrements to the playful, silly, colorful ones. There is truly something for everyone and every garden.

Here is my all time favorite garden “ornament”: our rabbit! He was given to us in the Year of the Rabbit, 1999… and has been sitting in the garden since then (with brief intervals indoors in the worst of winter). For the past three years he has also stood watch over the spirit of our dog who used to lie in the grass, facing south, just as the rabbit still does…

This wonderful fleur-de-lis ornament was a gift to me from my friend Ellen…a TOTAL […]

BAGS: CHIC, SLEEK AND GREEN

By Libby|2010-04-11T21:00:00-04:00April 11, 2010|Shopping, Trendy Monday|

We’ve come a long way baby since the days of boring brown bags…

Shopping bags have become a fashion item…in case you hadn’t noticed! From the very expensive designer bags to the lowly (but so useful) grocery chain bags: there is a time and a place, and a price point, for any kind of bag you seek.

#1:etsy: so sorry, I can’t find the link right now(but I had to include as it’s one of my favorites here…. #2. at reusablebags.com #3. at reusablebags.com #4. chicagoreader.com #5. paperchase.uk 6.onebagatatime #7. reusablebags.com

Some of these are made from all recycled products, and some are for YOUR recycled products. One of my favorite new finds, in the “lets use recycled products” category is atwestend.com. I love these bags to hold your bottles, papers etc.:

These made from discarded rice sacks:

Here’s a great carryall from Bliss Living:

Another great source for all sizes, shapes and patterns for grocery totes is Neela Bags. With prints like these, they hardly look like grocery bags, and I can attest to their holding up beautifully for over four years now…

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TRENDY MONDAY: THE COLOR CORAL

By Libby|2010-04-04T21:30:00-04:00April 4, 2010|Trendy Monday|

Whether it’s the color coral, or coral as a design element, coral is HOT!

From Maison & Objet, one of the most reported on fabrics, and looks, was this from Pierre Frey:

Great coral color here on the walls:

pillows:

wall art:

color on the walls, and motif in the curtains:

love these boxes from Bungalow:

Coral can be so many things: it can be an almost-pink, or an almost-orange, it can have yellow in it, it can be confused with red… It can be the color or it can be the ocean coral image.

And last, it can be one spectacular chandelier! The Lafayette Chandelier, made with faux stones of coral (from Pottery Barn).

TRENDY MONDAY: BOTANICALS

By Libby|2010-03-28T21:00:00-04:00March 28, 2010|Trendy Monday|

Have you noticed? Botanicals are everywhere!

These are a far cry from the traditional botanicals we usually think of..you

know, the very tightly drawn and proper images, like these:

This is reminiscent of the traditional:

chesterfield square from “Little Green”

Floral or Botanical? a bit of each:

Graham & Brown

From a traditional, historical reference, but certainly modern:

Thibaut

To this fun and contemporary:

To this, one of my favorites:

Ferm Living

TRENDY SHELVES AND BOOKCASES

By Libby|2010-03-21T21:00:00-04:00March 21, 2010|Home Design, Trendy Monday|

Shelf: “A flat tablet or ledge of any material set horizontally at a distance from the floor, to hold objects of use or ornament”

Given the definition of “shelf”, perhaps these can’t really be called “book shelves”..

No, this is not really a “trend”, but these ARE trendy shelves, or “book holders” or “wall organizers”, or whatever you want to call them. Gone are the days of a simple shelf on the wall: you know, the kind with brackets that never seemed too steady and sort of moved from side to side if you put anything too heavy on the shelf. And, of course, there was often just the shelf: no ends of any kind so no, you couldn’t really put books on them anyway! These new shelves are just plain cool… and fun, and colorful, and they work!

Then there are what I call “floor shelves”. These are trendy, hip, fun, made of all sorts of new materials and hold so much more than books.

And, of course, with your shelves it helps to have some Book Ends:

Here’s a contemporary look:

This I love! Now, what exactly WAS this space before shelves and bed? A closet, maybe? Very clever use of space. It’s all in the details, remember?

TRENDY MONDAY: MERCURY GLASS

By Libby|2010-03-14T21:00:00-04:00March 14, 2010|Trendy Monday|

Mercury Glass, Silvered Glass or Mirrored Glass was first made in Germany in the early 19th Century. And no, it does not contain either silver or mercury; it is clear glass coated on the inside with a liquid silver nitrate. This is actually inserted through a small hole at the bottom, into the double walled blown glass object. In the better, more expensive factories, a seal of some sort was inserted, thus preserving the intense silver color. Absent a seal, the lining would begin to disintegrate and become blotchy: I’m sure you’ve seen this in flea markets. But this really was the “poor man’s” silver and made owning “silver” pieces available to a new economic group. The glass was fashioned into all sorts of home and table accessories: it actually started with door knobs that, of course, did NOT need polishing. But soon there were candlesticks, lamps, dishes, goblets etc.

By the 1850’s it had come across the pond and gained in popularity in the Untied States where much of the glass was made in New England. But it soon fell out of favor for being “too much of an imitation”, or “too mirror-like”.

But of course, what goes round, comes round, as they say, and mercury glass reappeared,around 1900 , for the Christmas season . And the rest is history! The glass ornaments, […]