Colorful Kitchens: Lamps

Living with a house being remodeled during the winter seems like a huge headache, especially for a homebody like me. But if I can keep myself focused on the lights at the end of the tunnel it will help. I've had my eyes on these lampshades for a very long time. They are the product of a collaboration between Yellena James and Schoolhouse Electric (click on this link to the left to see all color options) up in Portland. Recently Schoolhouse Electric just engaged in another artist collaboration with another one of my fave Portland artists, Amy Ruppel. In fact international blogger Grace Bonney at Design Sponge just wrote up the event. Damn, we're lucky to be in the PNW where art and function collaboration abound. Truly what a wonderful idea to have artists help create great light fixtures. I'll let you know if either one of these end up in the new kitchen. Tell me in the comments section which lamp shades you like best.

From Design Sponge

Decorating New Office Space

At my place of business we've gone through quite a few office moves. This past fall I was upgraded to have my own office. The space was great with big open windows but really no room for decoration because the wall and floor space were limited. This time around I have a corner pentagon-shaped office with a window through someone else's office to the outside window. Generally speaking I really really love to have a window to look out at the outdoors while I'm sifting through the solving the problems of the modern day education system (wink wink) but now that I've moved in I'm really enjoying my corner of the office. One of the big challenges was to find a mirror that would reflect the window behind me and create a new window for me to gaze through during these intense bouts of problem-solving - not to be confused with day dreaming. So I went looking all around town for some items to spruce up my wee oddly-shaped working space. Here's a recap of items found, bought, and placed. Thanks to Oak St. Vintage, Puttin' on the Ritz, Luxe, the UO bookstore, Goodwill, and yes, TJ Max. See if you can guess which items came from each store. The key is at the bottom. Cheers!


Lamp - Oak St. Vintage; Milk glass cookie jar, and ash trays used as paper clip holders - Puttin' on the Ritz; turquoise Fire King mug, old water color and frame, and milk glass candy bowl - Goodwill; Mirror - TJ Max; File folders and thank you stationary - Luxe, green desk top drawers - UO bookstore. Wedding picture of Mr. and Dr. Monkey courtesy of Northfork Photography and friend James Johnston.