I am a bookworm and one of my favorite things to do is read. I could go on for hours (or for days) reading especially when I have a good book in my hands. When I’m reading, it’s as if everything else around me seems to just fade away and then its just me and my lovely book in the room. I don’t mean to alarm anyone with this of course. I mean – 1.reading on the train, 2. or while waiting at the visitor’s lounge, 3. or hanging out at a coffee shop are just some of the exceptions (We still have to aware of things around us when hanging out in such public spaces, dude. safety first! *wink*).
Aside from good recommendations, or a favorite author or just really good content and plots or that “i-just-know-this-is-a-good-book” feeling, there are times when I get drawn to a book simply by its cover. Yup, I also love really good book cover designs and since I love you all very much (awwww), I’m sharing one of my favoritest book cover designers. I love Coralie Bickford-Smith. Her designs are simply gorgeous *singsong voice*. The designs really get me going, bursting with design inspiration. I hope they do the same thing for you.
A couple of her book cover designs below.
Lovely aren’t they? The beautiful cover designs make me want to buy all of them (no surprise there. haha.). Before I end this post, I’d like to include a little background about the amazing lady responsible for such awesomeness. Coralie works at Penguin Books where she has made a couple of series designs as a senior cover designer. She draws inspiration for other brilliant design ideas she researches on and she does a lot of sketching and playing around with images to come up with her concepts.
Hurrah for clothbound books! ♥
“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
- Dr. Suess
P.S. Yup, I am a Self-Confessed Bookworm and proud of it! 
How about you, what books are you reading?
P.P.S. On a side note, you can find a previous mention of Coralie Bickford-Smith by clicking here.
First off, what are Pohutukawa trees? They are basically evergreen trees native to New Zealand, a favorite, thus inspiring the name “New Zealand Christmas Tree”. A Pohutukawa tree can spread to as much as 40 feet in width and it can grow up to 70 feet in height. 
How did said trees fit into the design problem? Well to start with, Architects and Interior Designers are constantly presented with challenging circumstances in terms of design and our example for this post is one of those said challenges – working with the existing environment. Herbst Architects was quite successful in dealing with such a factor and coming up with an amazing collaboration of – 1. The celebration of nature and working with what nature provided them with, 2. The good meshing of a sleek modern structure with firsthand connection with trees and the beach (the site can be found near the beach, not far from Auckland).
How did they do it? Well, they basically looked to the trees themselves to clue them in. The site which was covered with about 90 percent of mature Pohutukawa trees didn’t make it easy at all. They divided the house into areas which they can work around with the trees and they utilized materials that stick to the feel of nature – freshly cut wood, timber.
P.S. I wouldn’t mind living here. Not at all
P.P.S. Happy Birthday, Karl (a.k.a. Darth Vader)!
Nope, this is not a clothing/fashion wishlist (at the moment). I was browsing through Urban Outfitters and I fell in love with a couple of stuff (Ok, a lot. Haha). I then decided to sort of list them down for future reference of course (haha).
I basically love (love, love, love) color and certain prints thus anything that fall in said categories tend to catch my eye.
Such pretty, pretty colors! All this color is cheering me up Yup, I’d love to get all of them and make a house where I can place all of them in. Uhm, I’ll live there too. Haha.
Which ones do you like?
P.S. Back in college, I thoroughly enjoyed the design subjects that focus on color. Err, I loved all of my subjects then. I guess I’m a design nerd *insert nerd smiley here*
P.P.S. Leo the Owl Bank ♥ ♥
My dearest three-year-old, Georgia. *A Mummy’s sigh*
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For those who have been reading this design journal, you might have an inkling (or more like an in-your-face-big hint) that I love to chronicle Georgia’s birthdays and I try my bestest to celebrate it the best way possible. Though it really breaks my heart chambers, I was out of the country still when Georgia had her third birthday (this was beyond my control, believe me). Nevertheless, I called home to make sure that a mass service was arranged as a thanksgiving for her day and that she gets fed some ripe mangoes (she just loves them!).
Fast forward to the happy part in this post -
When I eventually got home, I made sure that Georgia got to blow her birthday cake (this has become a yearly tradition which I hope we will continue to observe in the years to come). I got her a yummy dog cake (from the same baker for all of Georgia’s cakes). She is able to eat said cake only during her birthday so that she’ll (hopefully) associate the taste and the cake itself as something that she gets to experience on the most special day of the year (and she really loves it! The other doggies, yes you too Max darling, love it too!).
A couple of pictures below (By the way, this is a long overdue post. Georgia’s birthday was last month.). Sweets, don’t grow up too fast *Sniff*
I love you, Georgia (my little lady)! ♥
P.S. Curious about Georgia’s first and second birthdays? Yupyup? Then click here and here respectively.
“Prayer is communication with the Divine. It can be whispered or chanted or written or expressed in the work you do. However it is expressed, it is never in vain.”
- Donna Wilk Cardillo
“Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.”
- Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, 1862
“For every mountain there is a miracle”
– Robert H. Schuller
P.S. I continue on praying that we win our battle, please help us with your own prayers. Thank you.
How’s the weekend so far for everyone?
It’s quite warm here and we went for a road trip (I simply love going on said trips). I had a fabulous time visiting some of our properties (I’m not trying to be a snob but I can’t seem to come up with a better term at the moment.)
Yep, I brought my camera along and a sun hat – you know the rest (haha). Here are a couple of pictures. Enjoy!
There you go (for now). I especially love this particular set – the colors are quite lovely and I am quite grateful to be able to capture them in some form. Nature never ceases to amaze me with it’s profoundness and settle beauty.
I’ll continue on taking pictures – I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did while taking them
P.S. I went for a more laid back/casual look. This drive was a last minute one. (Haha. I love jump shots. )
P.P.S. I also love good company, salsa music and taking more pictures. (I love the colors in this post! ♥)
Do you by any chance have a “chair question” ?
I wanted to do something fun with this post and thus will present a couple of stuff to inspire you (design-wise) and give you some ideas. Any element can change an interior’s atmosphere – for this particular post, the element at hand would be furniture, more specifically chairs.
What sort of flashed in my head was the word “Stereotypes”. We basically define stereotypes as fixed and most of the time oversimplified images of a particular thing or even person. Chairs have their own stereotypes too (i.e. Classical Chairs are to be utilized for formal dining settings, Outdoor chairs are strictly for outdoors, etc). I can go on and on but basically people have this preconceived notion of furniture and their (very very limited) limitations in terms of usage. Most people would base it on the look (ex. They would think that minimal/streamlined furniture are solely for contemporary or modern concepts), or material (ex. They would think that metal furniture would work best solely for a dentist’s office or a factory) – you get the idea.
From my personal design preference and how I do spaces, I don’t like to limit myself nor do I like to limit the possibilities – I like to play around more with design, which is probably why I love art and making art as well.
I got thinking and decided to give you a couple of ideas for the question below.
The answer to said question is a very big YES and since I love you all and I love what I do, I decided to not only answer this question in writing but decided to do so as well by showing you. (Wow, clever. Haha.)
I randomly picked out five, very different (in material, shape, style) chairs – so they sort of represent random stereotypes and will show you how you can incorporate them in five corresponding spaces as well. I created a couple of design concepts that will hopefully inspire you and give you ideas and options for your own chairs and spaces. Enjoy!
1. Random Chair No. 1
First up is a Classic Dining Chair with Windsor Arched Seatback and Turned legs (in Whitewood finish). How can you possibly utilize this particular piece besides buying a couple and using them for your dining table you ask?
Well, as a possible option for you , I decided to utilize this chair for either a home office or even a design office. This piece would greatly add a dash of creativity in your work space and it’s not your conventional office chair either. Don’t worry, it has a good back support system and the wood seat would be just as comfy for those long hours (if not, a neutral seat cover can be added).
I usually go for interesting pieces, some good color (this will bring some zest in spite of the work load) and some good storage of course. Check out how I designed the envisioned space below.
2. Random Chair No. 2
How about a vivid-colored chair in red? Would you love to get a couple of Verner Panton S Chairs? To answer the latter – If they are too expensive for you, a couple of not as expensive alternatives would be the Reno Chair Set by Target. To answer the former – don’t be afraid of strong colored chairs. You can definitely utilize them in any space, trust me.
Verner Panton is one of my favorite designers (I remember sketching his chairs for my furniture design class a couple of years back). His S chairs are classic pieces and are stackable and made out of plastic (a new material then). For the design concept below, I decided to use two of the pieces for a unique breakfast space.
Light and easily moveable, these pieces are not solely limited as accent pieces and are definitely not just limited for more modern concepts. I decided to do a fun mix and I must say, I’d love to eat breakfast in the interior below.
Those are my first two looks/concepts and I hope I was able to inspire you in some way and was able to provide you with information you can utilize for your own design needs. Interested to see the rest of the spaces I designed utilizing the other three chairs?
If yes, then definitely stay tuned. I’ll post “Part Two” soon. Have a good weekend!
Do you enjoy sitting down on chairs? Upholstered ones? Wooden ones? (Why do I ask the weirdest/not at all profound questions?)
Myself? It might seem weird but I always go back to sitting in this manner (kindly refer to visual below) at times. It’s not that we don’t have chairs in our house (how witty! haha), but strangely enough this is quite a comfy way of doing some sitting.
When I eat a sandwich (nutella on toast!), I sometimes crouched down to this. Or when I need to think over certain things (making to-do lists in my head), I do this. When I go sightseeing and we do a quick stop, I do this (that’s the story behind the picture below). Hmmm, funny why I decided to do a post on just this.
But hey, some people do posts on paper clips. I guess I belong in the bunch
Nope, this post doesn’t pertain to grandparents or older people at all. (By the way, my grandfather turned eighty-two today! Cool beans ♥)
Work of art below – a really cool concept which I really really love. It’s by Grandpeople, a Norwegian design studio.
It’s actually a CD cover that they designed for a band called The New Wine and their debut album, Waves. They incorporated a wooden cube as an organic element and added PVC-Film into the mix which was then “peeled off” in the shape of waves. This is a great representation for the band and the evolution in their music.
It would be really cool to use a couple of these cubes for an exhibition display or accent pieces in a room. I’d love a couple in my own room. Haha
