Just for a Good Laugh

I'm hoping to continue my travel series: profiling various designers and stores around Melbourne and surrounding areas. But for today I'm sending you over to my other blog that is more about my life and random thoughts. I had to write about what happened to me last week and thought everyone who reads this blog would get a good laugh out of my misfortune turned fortune (I would later find out)

SwanK SimplexitY

This is my more general blog and I hope you all enjoy it! Have a great and lovely tuesday! (or Monday if you are in the states!)

MoNk Design in Williamstown

Have you ever had that overwhelming feeling of excitement walking into a design store? I had that feeling yesterday when we took a quick trip to check out Williamstown. Heading down to the waterfront I glanced through the windows of Monk Designs storefront. And I was sold.

Oversized-stainless steel lighting fixtures counterbalance the luxe, soft fabrics. Beautifully upholstered chairs and supple leather couches took up most of the residence in this fabulous design shop. For anyone settling down in and around Williamstown and needs custom build furniture or a few chair makeovers, I would suggest heading down to Monk Design in downtown.

Blissful Bathrooms

My mom is hopefully re-doing our bathroom soon. She is a muralist (more like was: her 100% effort is now in her business The Fig Tree...which you can find on Etsy. which you should probably check out and buy things because everything she does is fabulous and made with love)
So during her muralist phase she decided to use our house as her canvas. (Minus my room because I insisted on decorating it myself.) But the downstairs nook bathroom became a jungle. Like an actual green, animal, jungle bathroom. Unfortunately its' seen its day, and is ready for a little face-lift.
There are blue floor and sink tiles which will be staying. She emailed asking me for my opinion. And these were what I came up with keeping in mind the navy blue.

an accent blue wall, accompanied with whites, grays and calm shades.

A gray and silver wallpaper, with a fun, graphic mirror.

Gold and blues are the epitome of royalty and luxe. It's so subtle, yet so effective.

Bravo Brad!

Not only is he picking up orphans left and right, involved with another powerhouse of a movie star, but he's knee-deep in efforts to rebuild and stabilize New Orleans. More accurately should I say, keep New Orleans "Afloat".
Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation has teamed up with Morphosis Archtitects and UCLA architect students to design and construct floating houses. In the case of unforeseen floods will use their foundation as rafts.


Very admirable on part of Brad Pitt and very ingenious on part of the architects and students involved. They even came up with a very clever name for it: FLOAT house. get it!?


They don't even look that offense, but what happens when all the houses float away and crash into each other and sink? I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm truly curious if the houses will be connected in any way to the ground, allowing them to rise with the water, but be tethered down. Similar to that of a buoy. Just a thought.
all photos courtesy of Interior Design Magazine.

Fitzroy St.

We went down to Fitzroy St. and St.Kilda Beach to check out the scene for Friday happy hour and I was very pleased with what I found. St.Kilda Beach is crawling with great little boutiques and fun, atmospheric bars and restaurants. I didn't get to explore in depth (Stay tuned for a complete guide to St.Kilda Beach after I get to go solo) but I found this super clever bed linen store dubbed: holy Sheet! I was itching to go in, but of course the boy needed to eat, and to be honest I was ready for a happy hour drink.

*****

So we took a quick ride around the corner to Fitzroy St. which turns out to be quite the hip hang out place. One place obviously had some great drink specials (hard to find around here, alcohol prices are ridiculous compared the the States) because it was packed inside and out. So we continued up the street to a place I spotted from the tram called Cushion. I know, how could you not be intrigued. It's unpretentious, calm atmosphere invited us in immediately, (did I mention the $5 house wines and beer, along with $10 mains!?) Although I wasn't hungry, K ordered a Chicken and Bacon Burger and we had a nice happy hour at Cushion. Ironically we sat on hard benches outside, not cushions.

Travel Series

So, I have been trying to brainstorm how to incorporate my international travels here in Australia into my design blog to make my posts more inspired and interesting. I've had trouble lately coming up with blog-worthy posts and its probably because I've been so caught up in getting settled here and exploring. So now that I'm finally getting the hang of the land down under I've decided it would be fun to do a type of travel series; visiting and reviewing various interior decor and design stores and boutiques in and around Melbourne. Each week I will spotlight a new store and give most likely raving reviews. There's already one store I'm infatuated with called, Maison L, in Richmond just outside of the city.
I was walking to the bus from an interview in this tiny city and there was this little tiny boutique that I had to stop and double take. The owner must have thought I was nuts, as I didn't stop raving about the one-of-a-kind pieces of giant coral that she had in amongst Chanel paperweights, french ivory linens and lilies. I was too overwhelmed (and my feet were killing me from my Michael Kors pumps) to take pictures, but Maison L will be one of the first stops on my list. Unfortunately she doesn't have a website.

*****
So I hope you all enjoy reading my design travel series and it should be up and running in a week or so. And I found these fabulous pillows courtesy of Studio TOTA's blog.

G'day!

Check it Out

I have discovered that Australia likes to profit off there magazines. I can't seem to snag a magazine around here from less than $10! So, I'm trying to be resourceful and use the internet to get my magazine fix. I'm dying to have a hard copy of the new Lonny Magazine, but until I convince someone in the states to send it to me, this online version will have to do.

Online Lonny Magazine

I'm spending the next hour virtually flipping through the pages of this great publication.