Category Archives: Design

THE story this year

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Canstruction is special this year. Rather 2013 is going to be a special year for Canstruction. Because it takes place TWICE. Once for last year (2012) in February and then another one on the regular schedule in November 2013 as it always does.

As many stories of compassion and kindness have come out since Hurricane Sandy here are the ones related to Canstruction.

Jennifer Greene from Canstruction sat with us and told us that in her 20 years of being with the organization, every year is special. The first Canstruction started with 8 teams/entries, and this year the expected teams were going to be 31. But the Hurricane threw it off and this rescheduled date has 24 teams participating. What of the 7 that decided not to participate in the competition?

In the true spirit of Canstruction, all teams donated their can collections right away to City Harvest so that they can be used for hurricane relief work. And 2 of those teams are back with MORE cans to build out tonight! Such spirit!

Lisa Sposato, Associate Director for City Harvest, greatly appreciates the spirit of this particular Canstruction event because it brings to mind the issues pertaining to hunger and food scarcity in people’s consciousness even when it is not holiday time. These cans will be making their way to all 5 boros through City Harvest’s distribution network.

Finally both Canstruction and City Harvest acknowledge the role and generosity of Brookfeild Properties who are hosting this event despite the fact that it is not part of the normal schedule of events at Brookfield for the year.

Enough of this sentimentality….let’s get down to see some cool designs!

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Back and Canstruction 2012 but in 2013

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After radio silence for so many weeks, nay, months we are back.
Why were were gone? Busy, Life, Work, Other Responsibilities etc – you know the drill
Why we are back? Because it is CANSTRUCTION time again in NYC!!!!

Reporting LIVE is one of things we love and the guys at Brookfield and BEAST SOCIAL have been so nice to invite us to report live on Canstruction 2012- which is actually taking place in 2013 folks, because of that superstorm that hit us….remember Sandy?

Yep.

But in the spirit of giving that is Canstruction- nothing phases these guys and the folks that participate. So what if it is no longer 2012. The show and the giving must go on!

And such a worthy cause!

For those who do not know- here is a link to their site.

So buildout starts tonight at 6:00 ( or 7:00pm) Eastern and we will be there and here, bringing it to you. Live. Fun. NYC Love.

The toy storage

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After a short pause for the summer, the great de-cluttering and cheap interior redo process continues…..back in the kids room ( it never ends) from this:

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To this:

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Ah! The relief.

What is keeping us busy!

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We are working on a new blog…

Why? You may ask. Shouldn’t we be working on this one and focus on growing it? Well-that’s a fair point. That is also in the works, and we have some very interesting conversations scheduled with some cool folks that bring an edge to design. But that aside, let us give you a bit of background on what ELSE is going on….

A while ago, in “Quiet Time is Over” we announced that we are working on a new start-up. The new Blog that we are working on is for that….makes sense, right?

We are launching a new benefit company that will help showcase the works of artists and craftsmen and help give them a platform to display and sell their works. Now you may think that the internet provides plenty of opportunities to do that. Yes….but some of these guys are not technology savvy, and do not have the resources or skills to comprehensively market their product.

So WE will help them Curate and Quality Control their work, and finally help them bring it to a sale–sounds like fun? Yep! It is! It’s also a LOT of WORK!

Below is our “Photo Studio”-Using makeshift products to photograph some of the products. Then its Photoshop/Lightroom and finally it will make its way to the Blog (more on that soon).

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Hugs!!

The DIY of the Chest

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On Before and After you saw the pre and post DIY of some colorful drawers/chest from IKEA. These were relics from previous apartment moves, and some cheap sale items from the “As-is” departments. I was looking for ways to customize my furniture because I hate to waste things so I went online, looking for inspiration. After much searching I found Lindsay.  Her DIY prowess and ability to make things her own amazed me and I decided to do something about my chest of drawers/cabinets.

So using her tutorial here, with a few modifications of my own (below) I made my IKEA my own for the kids room.

What you need to know:

  • You dont need a large work area to do this, only a dedicated one you can keep closed especially if you have kids, pets or both. Why– To keep them safe from fumes and keep fingerprints off while the paint dries. We gave up our bedroom and shacked up with the kids. This is what our room looked like for a week:
    Workshop for DIYMy desk during the DIY
  • COVER IT- its worth the time saved in clean up afterwards.
  • GET ADVENTUROUS- it can always be changed. Paint is cheap.

What I changed from Lindsay:

    • I did not take my furniture apart. It was old and would not have been able to take the disassemble and reassemble process very well. I figured if I used enough masking tape I would be able to keep it contained to where I wanted it. And if it was not visible then it did not matter anyway.
    • We bought a sanding attachment to our drill and went right into it with a 180 grit paper but on a slow run. It will take just enough off, and fast.
    • We used B.I.N PRIMER with Ultimate Stain Block. Its a bit more expensive than the one that Lindsay used but dries in 15 minutes to the touch and 45 minutes for another coat. We left it to dry overnight anyway and did 2 coats of primer instead of one.
    • We ROLLERed on everything with a 4″ foam roller– Primer, Paint and even the final Polyacrylic protective coat. I just dont like brush strokes…! The small parts were finished with a 1″ or 2″ foam brush, but I got pretty good with using the roller so turned it in different ways to get a smooth finish.
    • Another thing about the roller-If your roller is not running evenly be BOLD and dip in the primer/paint/polyacrylic again. Also make sure you scrape the paint off the stick and handle each time you change the foam attachment. That helps!

Rollers and Trays
Drawers and their rollers

  • 2 and sometimes 3 coats of paint as needed. I watered down the paint a bit to make it easier to apply, but the final coat was with thicker paint. Always leave paint, even quick dry paint, overnight to dry.

Thats it!

Before and after

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Before:

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After:

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Hope you like…!

In the works…

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This is what has been keeping us busy recently. Full info and a possible tutorial on giving an old room a new life coming soon- once the paint dries!

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My sister’s design on Harper’s Bazaar Instagram!!!

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At least one of us is famous….!!!!

Her latest on Harper’s Bazaar Australia’s Instagram….divine clutch

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More on her here

Quiet time is over

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So quiet time is finally over for us. This has been a busy but honest winter. Busy because of things that we had to do. Honest because there were many things that changed and many that need to be changed. Any change starts with being honest…about the question and about the answer to that question.

Without further bombarding you with cryptic nonsense…we are Back (!) with many plans for spring!

First off- home renovations starting with the kids rooms, then the living space and finally the office. That should be taking up most of the time the next few months.

Kids start school- awesome and sad at the same time.

New projects- a new flyer design, some memorabilia and some consults which we are excited about.

Reporting on the Architectural Digest home show pickings this year (yes..I found time to go)

And a new start- up idea that has been in the works for a while. More about that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, enjoy springtime and the awesome sunshine.

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Way to Go Anu–for Leona Edmiston!

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My sister is THE accessories designer for Leona Edmiston, a famous Australian designer and label!! A bit about the label: The Leona Edmiston label is sported by those famous L.A types when they want to be cool, for example heck out the her dress on Joss Stone on the cover of LA weekly.

And my SISTER is THE ACCESSORIES DESIGNER for the label. I have always been proud of her and now she has surpassed everyone’s (happy) expectations by being recognized for her fabulous work in just 6 months of being there.

Check out the Leona Blog for their write-up on her. Check out her work here.

And check out my fab sis:

 

 

 

Congrats Pigs!

Me.