Andy Goldsworthy

Some friends reminded me the other day how much I love Andy Goldsworthy (thanks gals!)!  I'm so impressed by his work every time I see it, its beauty, simplicity and organic all at the same time.  I'm also impressed with him as an artist.  After watching his documentary Rivers & Tides (and buying it then watching it over and over!) I feel as though the quiet dedication to his work he displays is amazing.  
One of my favorite pieces he did in the last 10 years was essentially a public installation piece.  On June 21, 2001 he displayed a body of work called Midsummer Snowballs.  This work consisted of 13 1-ton snowballs Goldsworthy created in the winter before.  Each of the snowball concealed pieces inside of them for example one had feathers, another pine cones, medal, barbed wire etc.  In the middle of the night, Goldsworthy unleashed each of these snowballs onto the streets of the London financial district. Throughout the warm day each of the snowballs began to melt, each one was different according to its location and interaction with people who passed by.  What a beautiful way to bring some nature to the streets of London for all to see and experience!  All the snowballs melted within 3-5 days, leaving the enclosed elements behind.
I hope I'm not alone thinking this piece was genius, its certainly one of my favorites.  Enjoy these amazing photos of the process. 

The whole process for 4 of the snowballs, from start to finish.  Amazing, I wish I'd seen these to be sure. 

My New Candlesticks

For the last year or so I've been on the hunt for the perfect candlesticks.  Of course, my dream set is this set of Nambe ones (found here). 

So elegant and simple.  But out of my price range, hence the hunt.  I finally found these at, of all places, home goods last week! 

I'm really excited about them!  (I'm also excited that Josh brought home another batch of beautiful flowers to brighten up the house!)  But in my hunt, I found some other ones I want to share with you. 

In time for Christmas, from Crate & Barrel.

Love the simplicity of these, also from Crate & Barrel.  I would've bought these hands down if I weren't more in the market for candlesticks for tapers, not pillars. 

From World Market, I like that these are wood, I feel as though those are hard to find. 

I like these from Pottery Barn for the organic shape to them. 

Inspired!

Today after I got home from an all-day retreat for the designers at my work and I felt really inspired! 
When I got home, I really just wanted to tackle some of the creative projects I've had in the back of my mind, but havne't gotten to yet.  I think a lot of these items will end up in my office because there isn't necessarily room in my house, but I was excited to finally put them together!  Remember all that paper I bought a few months ago, I finally used most of it.  Enjoy!

A magnetic board I covered in this hand screen-printed paper I bought 2 years ago from RiffeRaff.  I just got this magnetic/cork-board from JoAnne's a few months ago, and this was so easy to cover, just staple gunned the paper right to it. 

I've had this frame lying around, and tonight I just sanded it down to give it a more interesting texture and put the paper in without the glass.  I think its my favorite paper!  It will hopefully go perfect in our future office. 

I finally put this fabric over the cork-board in this frame and I had these matching pins to go with it perfectly.  This frame has been so many colors, gold to orange to black and now white, but I'm most happy with this white. 

New Zealand Photos

Hi All! Its been so long since my last post because we just returned from our vacation to New Zealand!  We had an amazing time and I would highly recommend it. 
I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures with you, not just the ones of scenery or of us, but the ones that were more artistic in nature.  Most of these photos were actually take by my super talented husband Josh!  Enjoy!  More regular posts to come, also I'll be asking you're opinion on which pictures we should enlarge to hang in our house. 

Save the Date Card

I've recently finished working on a Save the Date card for my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary celebration!  Next October they'll be celebrating 40 years of marriage, amazing.  I was pretty excited by some of the roughs I put together, and in the end they chose one of the ones I liked the most, which made me happy. 
It's usually challenging for me to work with a color palette that is more limited to neutral tones or needs to go along with a certain time of year (for example these Save the Dates were in line with a fall theme).  My impulse is typically to use bright colors and to use a lot of them!  This project, and some others recently have challenged me to create good design within the parameters given to me, and I think (or at least I hope) it has helped make my designs better.  It's good to be stretched in these ways and I'm glad I got the chance to do this project!  The first one is the final one, the rest are roughs.  Enjoy!