Ludwig Bemelmans

Ludwig Bemelmans is best known for his creation of the legendary children's book character, Madeline.  That typical little Parisian school girl has graced the bookshelves of countless children around the world for years, including mine.  I recently stumbled across a drawing of Bemelmans' that captured my adult interest just as his Madeline once captured my childhood imagination.  I'm no artist and don't pretend to know much of anything about visual art.  Nevertheless, Bemelmans' drawings seem almost to be "stream of consciousness" to me--lines that seem to never end, looping and turning and dancing across the page, creating some of the most elegantly idiosyncratic little scenes I've ever seen.

Profile of a Lady. 

ink, wash, and graphite

St. James's Park. 

ink and gouache on paper

(image above)

Self Portrait. 

pen, black ink, and grey wash

Chef tasting wine.

watercolor and ink on paper

white + black + wood

I've recently acquired the "need to redecorate" itch.  I don't know who gave it to me, but I'm actively calling all my recent partners to try and narrow it down.

Bah-dum-ching.

Anyway, I'm really loving the mix of classic black and white with raw rustic woods.  I think the combination of materials keeps things fresh and clean but without turning contemporary and too modern.  Here are some of my recent favorites:

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

blabla

NC has a favorite doll from Blabla (Clochette the fairy!) that she has been sleeping with pretty much every night since she was just a couple months old.  We used to not know exactly if she liked her doll or not because of the frequency of which she would chuck said doll out of her crib while laughing maniacally.  We thought for a while she might have had it out for her.

Luckily, over the past month or so, she has started to snuggle up to her doll when we lay her in her crib and when we go in after she has woken up, she is sitting there holding up her doll, so excited to show us her sweet friend.  (Thank god she outgrew the 'doll-murderer' phase.)

I'm so glad she has taken to her Blabla doll because I think it is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  Blabla dolls are so soft and whimsical and they wear really well too (just don't put it in the dryer!).  So I was so very pleasantly surprised to find out that Blabla also has a precious line of bedding, play mats, rattles, and other fun accessories, all just as adorable as their knitted dolls.

Pointelle Blanket (mist), Coverlet (bunny lagoon), Crib Sheet (little sleepy grey), 

Bunny/Stars pillow (grey), Fleur the bunny

Bunny/Stars traveling play pad (grey), Suzette the fox, Pillow (apple grey),

Oh So Sleepy traveling play pad (grey)

Pom the apple, Crib Sheet (ruffle pink/orange), Coverlet (suzette pink)

Pretzel Rattle (orange)

Would you judge me if I bought one of their sweet knitted dolls for myself??  Yeah, good idea, let's just ignore that.

xoxo

--mel

SHOP THE SHADES: purple & gold

After writing last week about the arrival of some pretty magnificent shades of purple and gold that are taking over the landscapes around here, I couldn't help but start to notice these colors popping up in everyone's wardrobes!  It seemed that everywhere I turned, the colors I had seen on the mountainsides were also on people at the grocery store, in the downtown shop window, playing at the park.  So I decided to put together my own shoppable and wearable version of last week's fall inspiration:   

Erickson Beamon earrings / Karen Walker sunglasses / 

Zara printed blouse / Madewell jeans / 

Emerson Fry d'orsay heels / H&M wool coat 

Shades Of: Purple & Gold

With the onset of fall happening right now, I'm really drawn to the combinations of varying shades of purple and gold that are happening all around us.  The aspen trees are bursting into flames and the hues of gold are leaning toward almost flourescent, while other trees are tending to go out a bit quieter, their green leaves turning darker and then over into the side of purple and eventually to brown and away, gone, into winter.  And every once in a while, you see a rose losing some of it's pigment, changing a once rich shade of wine into a lighter blush.  The combinations of these varying shades--the bright metallic golds with the rich deep indigos or light muted comfortable purples--are helping me to find inspiration in the now, instead of dwelling on the cold winter to come.     

(clockwise from top left) 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 

Do or Don't: Book Clubs

 

When I first moved to CO, some co-workers of the Mr. had a book club they had been hosting for a little while, and invited me to join in.  Seeing as how I knew practically no one here yet, I was excited to hopefully find others who I could see myself hanging out with "on the regular".  I had never been in a book club before so I figured I'd give it a shot.

When I touched base with all the women involved, they let me know that they were just finishing up Fifty Shades of Grey, but would be starting a new book soon.  Yes, I'll admit it, I definitely got a little scared when I heard that title.  What was I getting myself into?  A group of people who were seriously interested in not just reading, but actually discussing in public soft-core porn "novels"?  Was the next book going to be something from the Twilight series? 

I feel okay saying all of this now because a- in actuality (spoiler alert!) they are all now my good friends, and b- they had picked that book as sort of a joke to see what all the hype was about. Which, by the way, is exactly the sort of thing I would have done myself. In retrospect, I really wish I had been there for that particular book club meeting. I'm sure it was hilarious.

Anyway, the next title they chose was Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. At the time, I had never heard of the book or the author, more infamously known as "The Bloggess". After reading the first few pages of the book and almost peeing my pants more than just a couple times from uncontrollable laughter, I knew I had found a group of women that I could absolutely relate to. 

I felt so confident, in fact, that I agreed to host the next book club gathering.  There were only a couple people in the group that I had actually hung out with socially at that point, but the book title that they chose spoke so loudly for me, I felt absolutely sure that we would all get along just fine.  Sure enough, just as I had hoped and expected, these women became my closest friends here in CO, and I have that initial book club to thank for it.

So, tell me my dear internet cosmos:  Have you ever been involved in a book club?  If not, would you consider it?

(images from here and here) 

Alfie Design

How beautiful are these watercolor invitations from Alfie Design?

Even though I have absolutely nothing remotely important enough to justify having such stunning works of art act as invitations for coming up in my life, I'm still pretty tempted to commission some anyway.  How about an invitation for coming over to help me fold laundry?  Or a nice evening of binge eating chocolate chips while listening to a very determined 1-year old protest about having to go to sleep?

See, I knew I could come up with something.

See more of her beautiful work here, or purchase one of her cards, invites, or paintings here.