Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Weekend Nazi

After busting me pawing at the computer screen a few weeks ago, Valery cast aside her notions of good taste and honored my pleas for this: an anniversary gift delivered several months early! Admittedly, we had no idea about the Red Skull's after-hours predilections, though we weren't surprised in the least bit. Steven Weissman—a cartoonist whose works (such as Yikes) should be familiar to all—really captured Herr Schmidt's joie de vivre, we think.

This illustration ran in Seattle's The Stranger a while back, and we're grateful to Mr. Weissman for cutting it loose. We're also especially thankful that he honored our embellishment requests when he personalized this piece. What will our Mexican and Korean mothers think of this one?

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Too Animalistic

Here's a quick post to tide y'all over for the week.

Just welcomed two blue ceramic critters into our ever-increasing herd. The Bitossi cat (designed by Aldo Londi) came to us via a UK dealer. The Bennington hippo bank (designed by David Gil) was a present Valery received from our pal Mike. We had never seen one in this color before, and we were quite pleased when this surprise arrived a few weeks ago. Thanks again, Mike!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

You Can't Sit Down

Valery recently had a premonition about finding good stuff, so we planned accordingly and hit up several of our favorite shops this weekend—little did we know that we'd be turning up an elusive mid-century icon, and a longstanding item on our wantlist!

Designed by Eero Aarnio in 1967, the Pastil Chair has become synonymous with space-age design. We had seen them photographed in countless books and magazines, but up until today, we'd never actually seen one in person. This one's an original and shows all of the wear and tear you would associate with a 45 year old chair; however, after about an hours' worth of scrubbing, we got it looking a lot nicer, and we're not complaining, as it cost a fraction of what a newly issued one would've set us back. Needless to say, we're glad that it has taken up permanent residence in our great room!

We hadn't been to Scarlett Loves Rhettro in quite a while, so we decided to stop in since we were having a late lunch nearby. Our pal Darlene had this fantastic hourglass planter for sale, and we have an almost identical one (photographed elsewhere), which meant we had to bring this one home, too. So far, we've only seen two examples of this planter with its distinctive spaghetti pattern. This one will undoubtedly end up in our home office once we get started on that renovation.

Our collection of teeth continues! We were excited when we spotted this stool today because we knew that it would make a perfect addition to our record room. We're constantly amazed by the amount of tooth-related merchandise we come across, and we're slowly building a pretty considerable collection.

Here's another molar that Valery's had for a few years, and it's one of our favorite items in the master bedroom. We're not 100% sure about the origins of this lamp, but we certainly do love it just the same!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Casting My Spell

Our buddy Justin has once again delivered the goods! This 26 inch Brutalist Dodo was recently discovered at an estate sale in North Carolina, alongside a batch of other, similar mid-century wares. Justin had a ton of great items on offer this time out, but we were instantly drawn to this handsome fowland we were consequently rendered powerless by its gaze ...and its enormous paunch. Thanks again, Justin!! If any of our readers are in the area, we highly recommend dropping by Highland Row Antiques and checking out the shop and the rest of Justin's sale items.

Don't really know much about this beer-bellied beast, outside of the word Moss etched into one of its tail feathers. Any additional info would be much appreciated!