Perhaps the best trade show I have ever attended is Maison et Objet (which is currently underway in Paris).  There is just so many exciting new things to see there and I always wish I could make the trip.  So with much excitement I just read a round-up post over at Apartment Therapy by Ellie Tennent about the current show and some of her favorite picks.

Can we all nod our heads in agreement that these stack-able Matrioshka doll-like candle holders (that are perfectly misty/milky at the bottom) are just about amazing?   I’ll take 2….wait make that 10….

‘Bougies Russes’ candle holders designed by Stephan Lanez.

I continue with my lusty search for just the right neon sign to hang near my (hopefully completed this coming season) new deck and pergola.  So now that I have found 5 of them, I am not sure which to choose…..Artist and Designer Rory Dobner created all of these and he launched this collection at the show.  My rudimentary knowledge of the neon sign market makes me not even want to ask what it will cost me to actually own one of these charmers.

images from Apartment Therapy and Rory Dobner

My beautiful home grown gourds from last year’s garden are finally dried (yes it seems to have taken a full 12 months).  But now I am finally trying to figure what to make of them.  I am quite taken with these lovely (made from gourds) garden lamps from studiotempera on Etsy.

Last week while shooting for an upcoming article in Leaf Magazine I came across a huge tableful of stained and polished gourds.  This is kinda the way of things are Brimfield….you really just never know what there will be a big table of around the next corner.   I really like these too — and they would be much simpler to create….but then I am not sure what I would do with them.   Which would you do?….the obviously complicated and potentially tricky (but more impressive) lamps, or the simple stained (but  nicely earthy) versions.

I had few revelations over the weekend. Not the least of which was that I need to settle down and get back to a sense of routine and normalcy. The summer (with kids out of school, travel, lots of distractions and outside projects, and heat) has this way of upending everything. Add to that a new venture (Leaf magazine) and I have simply been totally topsy turvy.
Part of the revelation came when I had the pleasure of lunching with a group of bloggers, writers, artists and designers that all have the singular connection of Holly Becker. Holly was Boston on her book tour and this group was largely made up of women who she was friends with from her own Boston days, alumni from classes, and close colleagues. It was great to meet, in person, so many people I have known only online for so long.

Chatting with Holly I realized that she has gone through so many similar evolutions and has seemingly effortlessly moved from one success to the next. But her version of how it all happened is not so effortless…as she took time to write a beautiful book (in just 8 months) she kept her blog going daily, she moved to another county, and kept her blog going daily….she has taught classes and kept her blog going daily. Admittedly, she points out, she often works 100+ hours per week, but she has kept all the balls in the air and I found inspiration in that. She is going for it (her dreams) and that is hard work.   Now I am not saying I don’t work hard….I do, but I have let myself dither a few times too many in the last month and my brief chat with Holly made me realize that I just need to keep doing, moving….and getting to that new place where I want to be.

Launching Leaf is a huge shift for me – but one that I have been plotting for quite some time, and now that I am actually leaping into it, (as I said) I have been very discombobulated. Holly snapped me out of that with a quiet and to-myself  ‘get it together Rochelle’ moment.

The pieces are settling, kids go back to school next week, the farmers market is officially up and running and in full swing,  my last design project has all but wound up, and I am getting my head around the fact that instead of over-thinking what I write here, I need to just let studio ‘g’ be the place that I continue to share what inspires me. Even if it evolves. We all evolve and the fact is, I have chosen to become the founder of an online magazine about Outdoor Design and leave the day to day of running a landscape design business. I will be choosing (in time) to head off in other new directions too and all of those are part of an evolution.  Studio ‘g’ can’t not evolve with me.

So what has been on my mind lately? Magazine Covers, Fonts, Layouts, Photographers, Graphic Designers, Networking, Trends, Products, Stories, and reaching out to people.  I met a writer named Laura Gaskill this weekend.  She writes the lovely blog Lolalina. A visit there, sent me mentally back on photographer and layout tangents, particularly when I read about Petra Bindel (who took all these photographs).

I love the Swedish light and particularly the styling of these shots, and am interested in learning from this inspiration, so I can apply it to Leaf.

Also — these shots are feeding an unhealthy obsession I have recently developed — it involves building an old-school shed style glass green house (just like my grandmother had when I was a kid) off the backside of my dining room.   I dream it will bring in Swedish-like light.

all images from Petra Bindel

Have you ever seen something and realized it is exactly what you are looking for, but didn’t know it until you saw it?  I have been wanting something neon for my garden for a while, but mostly my shopping has turned up only the lamest of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer signs on Ebay and collectibles, that while cool, are completely outside of my price range.   I have considered taking a course in Neon Sign Making — but have yet to find one.

Daniel Bruce’s exhibition called Rustic Room is probably also beyond my funding, but is the perfect inspiration for what I want.   I (of course) love that his pieces are all garden related (for the most part at least — I don’t yet associate guns with gardens — but that may change — the woodchuck is still pushing my patience) and in the monochrome color scheme, they appeal to a sense of modernism.    I am most lusty over the wheelbarrow — I would put it on the side of a shed near a garden utility area where it would wait for the garden visitor to discover it as they rounded the corner.

images (and more)  from minimal expositions.

Here is the recipe:

Tapered candles
Bamboo poles
Wire
Pebbles
Terracotta Pot

Combine together in the most obvious way — and ta-dah! — beautiful garden lighting.  Just make sure you place it somewhere that you don’t mind wax drips — like I am thinking maybe over gravel or pebbled areas and certainly not on the deck or the stone patio.

Image from House to Home  UK.

Is anyone else as intrigued by these lights as I am?   They look so similar to a light I had in England when my daughter was a baby.   As much as a person can love a light that cost something around 35GBP, I loved that light.    It had a shape very similar to the Obus, and worked by touch — so no switch to ruin the shape and no switch to deal with in the middle of the night when the baby is crying (it sat on our changing table).    It also had this soft half strength glow feature that faded on and off if you wanted (I think one touch was a fade, two touches worked like a switch – which was absolutely perfect for a nursery where everyone prefers to stay in a state of half sleep as much as possible).

So, that the Obus has a similar shape, and looks to have the same warm glowing quality that I associate with sweet tiny babies and nurseries AND it is for indoor and outdoor use AND it has a pick-up and carry around directional light feature that is similar to a flashlight function AND it is rechargeable for up to 25 hours of battery life, makes this light have some serious winner potential.   I just can’t figure out why that other perfect light was so cheap and this one is so much more expensive ($250).   Here’s hoping the cost comes down so I can buy a whole bunch of them.

More Information: Joby Stathis