Since it’s a day when most of the world’s attention is on England, I thought I’d pull out this collage we put together around the…

…Sitting Bull Fashion Bag in Union Jack (it’s a big smooshy bean bag-ish chair)

I don’t know how I’ve been using Flickr for so long without EVER noticing their blog, but the pictures they have up from the crowds at the royal wedding are a total hoot. Check it out here.

• photo by Flickr member Jon Curnow

Want to know who’s cool? Patrick Chirico, the designer behind Build Your Block. For one, he has a dapper looking dog and you’ve gotta check out his DIY home garden for urban spaces. Oh, and he makes sweet pillow scenes too…that we already knew. Enjoy the Q&A!

What about Brooklyn do you absolutely love?

All types of food morning, afternoon and night; the architecture and bridges; the people and fashion; the smorgasbord of style, history, and culture.

Have you lived anywhere else?

I’m from Northern, NY.  Watertown to be more specific which is polar opposite of the responses above, but I still love it.

Describe your typical work day.

Well I run two companies full time and most of my day is taken up with WrecordsByMonkey, which is a interior and jewelry company that makes everything from vinyl records. I send emails and work on projects and new designs.  Then my afternoons, nights and days off are spent slaving over emails and orders for Build Your Block and trying to glue everything together.

Please share five things/people/places that inspire you.

My environment, My fiancee, godmother, family, and friends. The 5 boroughs of Read the rest of this entry »

I recently received a copy of Light x Design: 20 Years of Lighting by Bentley Meeker. Meeker is a lighting designer. While he started at The Palladium during the Wubba Wubba Wubba era (if you get that reference you are as old as I am!), his focus today is on event design. Now here comes the part where I am embarrassed. As I looked through the different pictures of the events (many of which were planned by Preston Baily), it took me until my third perusal to realize a lot of them were taken of the very same spaces (at the same angle even). The lighting design had so transformed the spaces that I could did not even recognize them.  The other thing I appreciate about this book is that Meeker’s lighting highlights and transforms some of New York City’s most glorious interior spaces, from Gotham Hall to The Museum of Natural History (imagine the whale in shades of blue and green speckles). While Meeker and architecture are a great pair, you’d be amazed at what he can do with a tent as well.

Pardon my photography, which does not do the book’s photography justice; my scanner is on the fritz so I had to shoot the book with my camera. Not ideal.

• All photos from From Light X Design: 20 Years of Lighting by Bentley Meeker, © 2010, published by Glitterati Incorporated. www.Glitteratiincorporated.com

Well, it’s steamy as Hades and our bulb plants are long gone, but I know a lot of you who have been buried in snow for months are finally seeing some tulips and daffodils! This morning the Vera Company posted this picture on Facebook*

It’s time to embrace color and bright greens, in your wardrobe and your home. For a quick home makeover, do a few quick and cheap things:

1) Switch out your living room throw pillow covers for a new color scheme. Maybe even through a white slipcover over your sofa.

2) Change your duvet cover for something more fresh and springy. Take those heavy blankets and quilts to the cleaners and then stow them for the next six months.

3) Treat yourself to some new and vibrant placemats and/or a tablecloth. Gather up a few fresh blooms and put them in your favorite vases or mason jars and pop them around the house.

4) Hit the nursery and make sure all the seeds you need for your edible garden. Depending on where you live, you may want to plant them this week!

5) Spring cleaning is a deep cleaning but for now, just get organized. Gather your supplies and clean out the spot where you keep said supplies. Throw your rags and cloths in a cute bucket and organize your cleaners (i.e. do you have three bottles of window cleaner with 2″ left in each? Then combine bottle). Once you are done with this stuff, you can really get buy on vinegar, water, and baking soda for most of your cleaning news!

• photo by Flickr member coanri

*I swear I have wound up following the most random stuff on Facebook, which I am sure Big Brother is collecting in to work on my FBI profile while marketing companies pay big bucks to see so they can bombard me with ads down the side for crap like “Join Kim Kardashian’s Shoe Society” – is that last one because once I jokingly put “Becky is keeping up with the Kardashians” as my status? I wonder if they realize half of it is because someone suggested I like their page and I thought “why not make them feel good”? Facebook is freaky. But I digress.