Laser cut Arcade

I’m not sure about where you are, but today the weather in Dublin is fifty shades of meh. In an effort to cheer up my afternoon I thought I’d share this amazing laser cut wood silhouette of George’s Street Arcade by Alljoy Design that I spied in Jam Art Prints last weekend. It’s not often that I see something and immediately have to have it [I usually think about something a lot before buying it, even if it’s a pair of tights], but I actually had to have this piece. 

The George’s Street Arcade is one of my favourite buildings in Dublin City Centre and even though I’ve passed it regularly for close to 12 years I still stop, stare and dream about living up among the turrets. This laser cut representation is so beautifully detailed and perfectly reflects just how amazing the Arcade is.

I wasn’t too keen on the font that was used for the engraving across the front so I covered it with a piece of Dymo that says the same as underneath [the engraving says George St Arcade but the correct name is George’s St Arcade]. I’m sure that’s me being pedantic, but I can easily remove the label if I change my mind or if a sweltering level of guilt hits me. There’s of course the option to frame this piece but I quite like how it looks perched on our living room shelf against the dark walls. I’m very glad to have this quirky piece added to our embarrassingly small collection of artwork, but I’m working on it!

Stuff + brains

For a moment let’s pretend those roses are peonies and I’m capable of styling a killer bouquet. 

At long last Friday you absolute beast, you’re within reach! I took a mini break from here this past while as work has been the most ultimate level of insane [good insane!] over these past two weeks. There was a flurry of launches, late nights and by-the-skin-of-your-teeth deadlines, which were exciting but kind of left me in a heap of zero cares when I got home. So instead of putting my usual and completely unnecessary level of pressure on myself to blog, I cut myself some slack and chilled. I don’t know why but I have it in my mind that if I don’t blog 3 times a week, I’m a complete failure. While the work madness [good madness!] was happening, Robert was away for training in Atlanta, Georgia and as it was the longest we’ve been apart, it was probably for the best that I didn’t blog as I was a hot mess of emotion. In my loneliness, Juniper and Toshi experienced an entirely new and exciting level of Stockholm syndrome. 

I’m going to try and mentally cut myself some slack and see how it works. Why in the fresh hell do we put ourselves under so much pressure for things that don’t even register on other people’s radar? Brains are crazy things. I’m hoping to work on a few small projects this weekend + see my BFF so it’ll be some long overdue chillaxing. So whatever you do this weekend, and in general, I hope you’re good to your brain. 

Hybrid moments

For Christmas this year Robert was particularly shnaky. He delved into the search history on my laptop and found my over-zealous creeping of all things iBride [pronounced like the French for hybrid]. Back in June of 2015, two particular items Robert found were ibride’s Rosita and Isild trays. There was much clicking. Fast forward to Christmas morning and what did I spy under the tree? Only just these two birds. Without sounding too dramatic, I think it took a full 3 days for me to realise these trays were in my possession and that they were for real.  

I don’t like the idea of gloating about things I got for Christmas, but these are too damn fabulous to not [p.s. Robert and I got just one present for each other this year. Well, mine was actually two, but you know what I mean. This year was very paired down]. In a strange and not-so-strange way, these two trays have a very special meaning for me. They’re reminding me to get back to what I love about interiors and that’s about having fun with design and to take things less seriously. I think back to how our apartment was before I started putting it online, and how my past bedrooms in my parents place looked before then. They were unusual, a bit fun and had unexpected things dotted around the place. They weren’t too dissimilar to what I have now, but I have noticed as of recently I’m missing the fun. I’ve gotten too bogged down with the “will this look good?” side of things. 

So here’s to Rosita and Isild – reminding me to get back to the fun side of design and to be less serious [as if I even was all that serious to begin with].