today the lovely ladies of loaded bow are sharing some great business advice with us. we’ve gotten nitty gritty with accounting, income organizing and public relations, but today we’re going to take a time-out to think about the big picture, and focus on telling our businesses’ story- and finding the most authentic (and accurate) way to do so. no matter what stage of business-life you’re in, this is a great article for reminding all of us that sometimes we have to pause and remember why we started our business, what we love about it, and how best to communicate that to others.

CLICK HERE for the full article after the jump!

read more …

proud mary is a wonderful textile company run by molly and harper (you may remember this post from their debut line). their line of home and personal accesories is designed by these talented ladies stateside, and then are each hand-sewn by artisans in guatamala (with the help of nest that helps connect designers to developing countries ensuring fair wages). first up we have a sneak peek into molly’s place in portland, oregon. i’m seriously in love with her dining room with that great stained glass detail. the peek continues after the jump (additional images here), and stay tuned for harper’s place coming up next! [thanks, molly!] -anne

[above and below: I live on the top floor of a turn of the century craftsman home in Portland, OR. I have two lovely roommates who are fellow Aspenites (I grew up in Aspen, CO).  The owner of the home is an art restorer and she put in the wonderful stained glass windows in the living room.  The hanging tapestry is a ‘huipile’ that I bought on a Proud Mary trip to Guatemala. The wooden chair in the corner is a piece I made this year; I call it my supernormal chair.]

The table and chairs came from a vintage store here in Portland. My roommate Hayley Cassatt painted the bunny painting, and the tapestry is from another trip to Guatemala.

This is our cat Elliot who shouldn’t be one my bed because I’m allergic to cats, but he always seems to find himself there. I took the pictures on the wall; it’s a collection of trash that I found on the street over a few months. I was trying to find organic and inorganic pieces that resembled one another. . . I really have a thing for unique chairs. I bought this metal chair at the same flea market in San Francisco and used a pillow that I found in Bolivia as the seat cushion.

today’s manchester city guide is special themed guide courtesy adelle robinson and justin keefe, owners of h is for home. adelle and justin are taking us through their favorite spots- with a special focus on the vintage and hand-crafted scene- so i hope you’ll enjoy their guided trip through manchester! [image above, manchester civil justice center, via dezeen]

CLICK HERE for the full manchester guide after the jump!

read more …

missi pawlecki and brian caviness met in ohio and migrated to california to start birds of ohio. their collection of vintage print and pattern swatches was created help provide inspiration for designers. and beyond being big fans of their work, we’re also huge fans of their home! the house was built in 1962 by joseph eichler. it is a post-and-beam structure that allows large expanses of glass–walls of glass. they love all the natural light, but joke that the drawback is that you have to wear sunglasses in the morning if you want to watch tv. click here for more images, and, as always, you can find all of our fantastic sneak peeks right HERE. {thanks, brian and missi!} -anne

(photos by Hirofumi Inaba)

[above:  This Danish Mid Century Couch is from a house in the neighborhood. The owner had passed away and his daughter was trying to sell the furniture with the house. The new owners were not interested, so we lucked out. Come to find out our cool next door neighbor, who used to be a screen writer for TV shows Bonanza and Combat back in the day, was a good friend of the original owner of the couch. He recognized them when he stopped by one day. The pillows are part of the recessionary sewing projects my friend Krysta and I have been making. The vintage Formica coffee table is from one of our favorite vintage stores, Out Of Vogue. I guess they supplied the TV show Mad Men with a lot of their furniture and props. We picked up the print on the wall at an estate sale]

The chairs are vintage Paul Mc Cobb, hand-me-downs from a Great Aunt. The couch is from Crate and Barrel. We were trying to find a simple couch we could afford (not easy these days). Then we found this one, but it was supposedly discontinued. But, lucky for us, they still had frames left and we were able to pick the fabric we wanted. The pillows are from Urban Outfitters, ages ago. The ceiling fan is from The Modern Fan Company.  We picked up the tree print over the dining room table at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.

Our kitchen still had the original cabinets and appliances when we moved in. So we just spruced it up a bit and updated the appliances (when one started shooting sparks.) The previous owners left us the large globe ceiling lamps that came from an old church. The black pot is by Timo Sarpaneva. We have cooked many yummy soups in this pot. The pottery above the cabinets is by Jonathan Adler.

Our Office also doubles as a 2nd guest room, or for nap time when we have been looking at pixels too long. This is our goofy dog, Max. He has the most enormous ears and we love him for it. The pillows are made from left overs from our vintage swatch collection. The prints above are another estate sale treasure.  [right] If you can’t tell, we kinda like birds, hence the name of our business, Birds of Ohio.  Anyway, this bird print is from the 60’s by David Weidman.  We got it at the Melrose Trading Post Flea Market.  The cute bird cutting board is a gift from our friend, Laurita. She got it at Urban Outfitters.  The pottery above the refrigerator is by local LA Potter Jon Scott.

This Vintage graphic wall hanging is another excellent score from the Rosebowl Flea market in Pasadena. The pottery is Eva Zeisel. She is 102 years old and still going strong. She just came out with a line of Rugs for The Rug Company.   I guess the key to a long and productive life is to be passionate about something. The cute little iron owl was a Christmas gift from our friends, Krysta and Matt. They found it at Tortoise on Abbot Kinney in Venice.

We got our bedroom set from Room and Board.  We found the wall lamps at Out of Vogue. We were supposed to be buying Christmas presents for other people, but instead we bought these for ourselves. Oops! The guitar is a Kalamazoo from the 30’s. The wood has aged so perfectly that it sounds like warm butter. The artwork is a series of photographs given to us by our friend Anna Cox. as a wedding gift.

This is our guest room and library. The bookcase is the Index Four Bookcase from Design Within Reach. The vintage lamp is another great find from Out of Vogue. The hand-screened print from the 70’s was produced by Newsweek to honor the Font Designer William Caslon. Looks like Newsweek sent these off to potential advertisers as a gift.–another great find from the Rose Bowl.

We picked up this Danish side table down the street in the Orange “Circle”. Being from the Midwest, we sometimes miss the history of things. Everything out in California is relatively new. But, lucky for us, we live about a mile away from the center of  “Old Town Orange,” which is filled with quaint antique shops and turn-of-the-century Victorians and Bungalows. The glass vases are from back in Ohio. Ohio State University had a good glass blowing program, so from time time they would have student sales. The plant life is from branches that fell off our Eucalyptus trees. [right:] The bedrooms in our house are 10’ x 10’, so we maximized space by designing these desk/shelving units from Infinite Storage Solutions.  to fit our space. We splurged last year and got the Eames Management Chairs. Why not? We will have them till we die. If we live as long as Eva Zeisel, we will really get our money’s worth. The Eames shell chair with leather cover is another vintage find. The Mountain Goats poster was designed and hand Screened by our friend Clint Reno. Clint now does gig posters for everyone and their brother. He is quite the talented illustrator.

The 1st thing you see when you enter our front door is this open air courtyard. We love the fire pit that erupts out of the ground. It is a good place to hang out with friends and roast a marshmallow or two. The print, as you walk into the house, is an original Charley Harper print titled “Ptarmigan.” He was a fellow Ohioan and bird admirer.

for a long time now i’ve been a huge fan of illustrator steven harrington’s work, so today i’m really excited the share a sneak peek into his california home. i especially love the way splashes of color specific to his work weave their way into his home. don’t miss more of his work right here, and click here to check out additional images of his home. [thanks so much, steven!] -anne

[above: This is my small Craftsman house located in South Pasadena, California. I live here with my brother John. Top-center is one of my favorite pieces drawn in graphite by Josh Petherick from Australia. Directly below are a couple of house ware pieces I created for Urban Outfitters and Nylon magazine. The ‘built-in’ bookshelves are also one of my favorites.]

knit from my mom.

Here’s an ‘in-progress’ studio shot. Spin Art makes me dizzy….

Here are a couple of newly acquired screen prints from my friend Piet-Parra of Amsterdam. He just recently had a gallery show here in Los Angeles, was super epic.

Here’s a cut-construction-paper piece created by Florencio Zavala, has been a radical trade. Along with this vintage album cover that Karla bought me for my birthday.

Owls and pipes are two other things that I enjoy collecting. The top right pipe is an opium pipe and the top left pipe was personally bought by me from some tribes’ people in Thailand. All of the owls are from all over the world, the second one from the right is a wooden whistle that ‘Whoos’ when you blow into it. I keep trying to make it through the Hobbit collection….

My brother John working hard on the porch. I love our porch, especially during the summer. It’s a little tropical ‘get-away’ especially after you have a couple of margaritas.

Here’s an ‘in-progress’ studio shot. Spin Art makes me dizzy….

Some cut-paper piles. Elements for old and new pieces….

Here are some of my most prized posessions in the house— very rare reggae/Jamaican 45 singles. I try to keep them organized in these little vintage record boxes.

french photographer, artist and fashion designer barbara berrada runs the adorable children’s shop les zigouis (which you may remember from this post). in keeping with the french, her taste and styling is impeccable. we’re so happy today to share with you a sneak peek into her gorgeous home in rouen, france (about a hour and fifteen minutes outside of paris). we hope you enjoy the post and  you can find many, many more images right here. stay tuned for two more sneak peeks at noon and 1pm! [merci beaucoup, barbara!] -anne

fugu is the japanese word for blow or puffer fish and it also lends it’s name to fugu fugu press, a letter press company run by married couple ken (the machinery guy and piano player) and shino (the illustrator). besides producing great work (click here for their latest work from nss ‘09), they also have a wonderful home in altadena, california. they lived together 10 years in a great old apartment, but this is the first home the couple has owned.  it’s more modern than their last place, which they love, but moving also was the perfect excuse to de-clutter and start fresh. they’ve only been moved in since last april and have a lot of projects yet to conquer, but life keeps them busy.  don’t miss additional images here. [thanks shino + ken!] -anne

[above: My art desk is also in the kitchen. The prints above the desk are by Kiyoshi Nakazawa. The clock was purchased at a great store in L.A., called OK.]

The dining room set was a wedding gift from our friends who moved to Italy. They also gave us the lamp on the stereo. The old stereo was a hand-me-down from my old roommate, Uyen - the turntable needs some work but the radio works, and it’s really fun to listen to it through the vintage speakers. The prints above are by Hatch Show Prints.  The frames are from IKEA.

A print by Tadahiro Uesugi.  The Iranian placemat was purchased by Ken’s mother when they used to live there. . . On the other side of the dining room, there is a little nook which used to be an ‘upgrade’ feature of these houses that were built in the area.  It’s an indoor bbq (how 50’s!).  The vent is closed off now, so no grilling the skewers in dining room for us.  We’ve collected and received as gifts a few vases over the years, and this seemed to be a great place to display some of them.  The silkscreen is by Nathan Ota.

We got this bed frame at a furniture store in Pasadena called Dwell.  It has nothing to do with the magazine.  The pillows on the bed were made by our friend Kimiko, using re-purposed fabric.  The print above the bed was done by another friend, Luther Gerlach, who specializes in working with large format vintage cameras and methods.  The lamps are antiques that we got from yet another friend who used to have a vintage furniture shop, and the dresser is from IKEA.  We made the wooden boxes last year for the stationery show as display shelves, and now we use them as night stands.  Morgan the pitbull mix is from a shelter in Pasadena.

On another IKEA dresser: My illustration which was done for L.A. Weekly.  A ceramic dog purchased years ago.  A knitted dog by Lara Newsom.

The biggest reason we love this house is the pool and the view.  On a really clear day we can see all the way to Catalina island, but that only happens a handful days a year!  Lanterns are from IKEA.

The couch is from Restoration Hardware, table is from IKEA, and the rug is by Peace Industry which was a floor sample at Design Within Reach.