G O O D T H I N K I N G

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i love this idea that Stockholm-based Pretty Pegs have come up with. an online shop offering a leg collection that works as an alternative to the standard Ikea legs...we all love ikea furniture but some of the legs are pretty blah...why not dress 'em up?
"Our vision is to create a new way of presenting rooms by adding color and personality to furniture," they say. "And just like your favorite pair of shoes, they complete the look."

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H A W K C A M 2 0 1 2

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i'm loving that the NYTimes/NYU Hawk Cam is back!
"broadcasting live from a 12th floor window ledge overlooking Washington Square Park, where two baby red-tailed hawks have hatched".

Watch live streaming video from nytnestcam at livestream.com

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I N T H E G A R D E N

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it's been absolutely perfect spring weather around here lately....and the weekend presented a great opportunity to get some planting and yard work done and hang up my new birthday windchime in the gorgeous april sunshine.

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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deli cat edition

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H A P P Y A N N I V E R S A R Y

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Today marks 8 years since we've been in our house!

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S P R I N G L O V E

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i love a good garden shop. while we were out in beautiful cold spring harbor over the weekend we stopped in at the main street nursery to look over the early spring offerings. the best part was tucked in the back where they had the most adorable little barn and petting zoo. anyone who knows me, knows i'm crazy for animals so of course we had to hang a little.

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I N B L O O M

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spring had definitely sprung around here. the cherry blossom tree in the year started blooming about 2 weeks ago and the neighborhood hardware store has exploded with spring plants. I have alot on my list.

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A R T P L E A S E

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now that our living room dining room has some nice new furniture and rugs we need to do something about these enormous empty walls. since it's on the "schedule of the future" to renovate these rooms for real i guess we never fully embraced them and put anything on the walls...it finally hit me when my friend beth said "you're both designers and you have no art on your walls?"... that was 3 years ago.
these are the rooms we spend the most time in so it got a little nuts not to really try and make them as nice as can be until our walls are replastered and the floors are finished (so don't look at those :).

an idea we're toying around with are these great prints from inflatedeflated to hang above the table. could be fun and graphic as well as great conversation pieces.

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T H A N K S F O R V O T I N G !

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although designsmitten didn't make it to the finals of the Apartment Therapy's Homie Awards, we did get some great traffic and some new readers! so thanks again for taking the time to vote...hopefully you discovered some cool new blogs as well!

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S T A L K E R ?

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no i'm not a stalker...just an admirer of this gorgeous house...and especially the windowboxes...if you know me you know i love a fab windowbox...i think i took more photos of amazing windowboxes while we were in London than anything else!
anyway, we were riding bikes around brooklyn heights, i saw this house and i slammed on the brakes so hard i nearly endo-ed right over my handlebars. I'm always looking for interesting things to do in the windowboxes to cheer things up over the winter....but i've never seen this. so simple and clean, and truly a great idea. it just looked like simple birch branches stuck in the dirt (a little hard to see in the photo i know)...well i'm sure having a freaking gorgeous, flawless house with brand new custom looking window boxes and planters helps too!

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C O O L S P A C E S

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this weekend we went to this really fun place called tacombi on elizabeth street after visiting the NewMuseum. It's basically an outdoor-like or even beachy foodtruck in an enormous garage. super casual pcnic and card tables and you order from the vw bus where the awesome tacos are prepared. very cool and low key. even the bathroom was fun.

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L A S T Y E A R

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this time last year our plumber and electrician were puttin' on the finishing touches. our plumber was putting in finishing fixtures and faucets in both the bathroom and kitchen...and our electrician was installing these gorgeous pedants. They really are a statement!

Titan1 pendant from Design Within Reach

hello hot stuff

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P L E A S E V O T E !

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designsmitten has been nominated for an Apartment Therapy Homie Award! A true honor as many of my favorite blogs from around the world are up as well. Voting closes march 2 So please go over and vote now!  It's quite easy...just scroll to the bottom of the list and resister (you only need an email). I'm at about 11 votes so look for designsmitten right around there on the list. thanks!

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I T ' S D O N E !

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well it only took chris all of a few days (not including waiting for the legs to be delivered) to make this gorgeous coffee table... came out amazing huh?

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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christmas 2012's hot new toy is the "catnip banana"! this banana is getting more play than the previous favorite toy "yellow bird with cowboy boots".

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H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y

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wishing Dad L a happy b-day...and many more!!

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I N P R O G R E S S 2

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coffee table hairpin legs

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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I N P R O G R E S S

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after looking extensively for a simple coffee table, chris decided to make one himself out of plywood and stainless steel hairpin legs (on order). the plywood will go nicely with some of the other pieces in our living room that use a similar/same material. stay tuned.

a nice angled, rounded edge is key.

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L I V I N G R O O M F L O R

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take a look at the new Flor carpet tiles laid out in the living room!

the winning pattern (partially hidden under sofa)

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S M A L L C H A N G E S

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back in november we finally got to painting the bedroom again...it's been about 5 years (what!?) since we finished the downstairs renovation so it was overdue. plus our contractor put his foot through the ceiling when we were redoing the kitchen which is directly above...thankfully he didnt completely fall through and get hurt! add to that 2 cats who like to sit in the windows and dont always stick the landing when jumping up there resulting in lots of paw prints on the walls underneath. we followed what we did in the kitchen and had marble windowsills installed...it really makes so much more sense than wood or plaster sills (dirty cat feet aside) and it just looks cleaner and more 'finished'.
then we just repainted the ceiling and painted the walls a slightly grayer gray than previous (from ben moore 'paper white' to a grayer 'dove wing').  fresh!

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A T T H E F L E A

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every weekend here in brooklyn we have the wonderful 'brooklyn flea' to look forward to.
in the winter months it's held in the gorgeous landmark interior of the old williamsburg savings bank on flatbush ave. we're always drawn to any kind of old typography items and this week we bought a handful of metal letters for our big jar of woodblock letters on our office desk. I had to have the R as a tribute to my former last name.

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C A T A P P R O V E D

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we got our flor carpet tiles delivered yesterday...of course it took arnold all of 2 minutes to start testing and investigating the comfort level.

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