I can like girly too. If it's elf-girly.

 MIGNONNE

I've been adding quite a few etsy shops to my favorites lately. I'm thinking maybe I'll make it a monthly ritual to feature a favorite shop on the blog. We'll have to see how that goes.

But for now, I would like to share the shop Mignonne handmade. Jennifer Wood, owner and designer, creates lovely head pieces with perfectly sweet embellishments. Not only are the designs soft and peaceful, but so is the photography. Really, I just want to be a woodland fairy elf.

    

see the rest of her romantic creations here: mignonnehandmade.etsy.com

and she was featured by etsy! (those bastards always beat me to it) read the interview here.

lovely work Jennifer!

emily

powers of ten

Came across this marvelous video today on the Etsy blog, showing just how much heart and soul goes into the Eames Lounge Chair. This commitment to handmade will always makes Eames the best.

After I did a little research, I found at that, coincidence of coincidences, Charles Eames was born and raised in none other than St. Louis! My hometown! Charles and his wife Ray designed the chair in 1956. And aren't they a darling couple?

And don't they live in the most wonderful home?

With the loveliest book case?

pictures here

Don't you just love them?

the woodland household

Woods of Narnia

apple wood buttons

pine wooden coasters

Birch round buttons

birch buttons

pine place card holders

Woods of Narnia is a handmade store on etsy.com selling everything from place holders, button, jewlery, and coaster made entirely of wood! We here at The Second Fiddle love wood, and so thought these cozy coasters and such would fit our style. We hope you enjoy the rugged and rustic domestic items.

See more of Woods of Narnia's wooden items here: www.WoodsofNarnia.etsy.com

found paper, small scissors

I have always been fond of Agnes Montgomery's collage pieces. In fact, it is possible I have already posted some of her artwork on this blog. Oh well, a few more can't hurt. The second piece has always vaguely reminded me of something, but I can't quite remember exactly what. And the last one looks like an illustration for a book of fairy tales.

ecosystems

Roaming around Barnes and Noble the other day, I came across "Charley Harper: an Illustrated Life," and was instantly smitten. I have always loved Charley Harper (and always believed I would have done better in science class had he illustrated my biology text book) and I do believe that this was the most beautiful coffee table book I have ever seen. And how playful! Children and adults alike might enjoy it! 

I do love  buffalo and other plains critters. 

These collages are some of my favorite images in the book: all these bugs and lizards and platypus swarm together so harmoniously. 

Alas, this book was out of my price-range, so I had to content myself with only a brief look. Charley has something quite interesting to say about art and ecosystems: 

"I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe."

Indeed! 

the internet!

The book cover archive is now equipped with a randomize button, allowing me to sit at my computer browsing books from all far and sundry corners of the archive. Hoorah!

It is, as the man himself says, glorious.

crime

This is my favorite book cover, perhaps because it reminds me of a cop show from the sixties or something, not that I am any authority on cop shows. The font is perfect, the white is perfect, and that sucker is perfect. I also like the tiny type-writer lines.

Darren Haggar 

And I am now the proud owner of a copy! I think I will just leave it on my desk and look at it a couple times a day.