This Week from Lisa Congdon: Getting Motivated for Creativity in 2010

I am one of those people who always has to have some sort of creative project. For the most part, my creative projects are built into the way I make my living: preparing for art shows, collaborating with other artists, working on illustration projects for clients. This year, I decided to motivate myself even further to be creative every day by inventing for myself a daily project for 2010. On January 1, I launched A Collection a Day, 2010 .



A Collection a Day, 2010 is a project that will span exactly one year, from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. On each of those 365 days, I will photograph or draw (and occasionally paint) one collection. Most of the collections are real and exist in my home or studio; those I will photograph. Some are imagined; those I will draw or (occasionally) paint.




Since I was a young girl, I have been obsessed both with collecting and with arranging, organizing and displaying my collections. (You can see a profile here on Poppytalk about my just a few of my collections from 2008). This project is my attempt to document my collections, both the real and the imagined. Some of my collections are so large that I will need to photograph them separately over several days. I will likely not attempt to photograph collections in which the individual pieces are large in size or awkward in shape (i.e. my art collection or vintage enamel dishware collection). The only rule is that I must photograph or draw a whole or part of a collection each day for 365 days and post the result here on this blog.


The practice of collecting and documenting collections is as old as the hills. I want onlookers to know that I do not profess to be doing anything new or unique or ingenious. I am embarking on this project because I love my collections, and I want to document them in a way that makes sense to me, and share them with whoever might be interested in looking at them.


Yearly projects that folks share via the internet are also not a new concept. Countless creative people have been individually and collaboratively launching year-long, 365 day, or 52 week projects and sharing them through Flickr and through blogs over the past several years. Yearly projects help us to stay focused, tell our story in a structured way, and keep us motivated to live a creative life.
Will I run out of stuff to photograph or draw over time? Will it remain inspiring and enjoyable? Only time will tell. I hope if you are interested you will come along with me on A Collection a Day, 2010 . What project(s) have you started this year?

dressing up!

anthropologie.com

The new year always kicks me into gear to renew and re-organize and so I start off this week with a fun diy idea. I spotted this dresser over the weekend at Anthropology which I love (although not the price tag), so I thought with a little black paint and stencil or two, I could fix up that old dresser of my grandmother's that I've been wondering what to do with for so long and convincingly create something similar. I'm now thanking myself for not painting it this past spring (see blog post here); what was I thinking? Stencils, black paint and a little distressing are it's current destiny.

Teal and Gold

Teal and Gold is Tyler and Kelly McKenzie, two busy beavers who love to make and design objects out of wood. All the images in their work are illustrated and wood-burned by hand in their lovely Kelowna, BC, (Canada) home. They are also participating in our market this month. Click here and here to see more.

Things on the Radar: Spooled & Spindled

"Style Files" image from House and Home Magazine - Jan/10. Other images from thout.ca.

January's issue of Canadian House and Home features a wealth of trends happening right now and included in the list from one of my favourite departments of the magazine, Style Files, is "spooled furniture". I've gathered a few images of some other examples of ornamental legged furniture as well and samples of how they have been incorporated into different room settings. I'm loving these pieces which work with many different design influences, from modern, rustic to asian.

Above: Inspired both from design masters and grandmother's, Canadian-based Thout has created this Old School Table using a contemporary top resting upon curvaceous, classic legs to form a design of contrast. The finish provides a bold flash of colour without obscuring the grain. Available in red, black and white.

Photo credit: Heather Ross via House and Home Magazine - Jan/10(Above) A great find and a different take (more spindled) from Vancouver boutique, Heather Ross In House, an antique black folding table with a beautiful authentic patina. Heather Ross In House, 1525 West 6th Ave., Vancouver.

Below: The Two Tops Secretary, designed by Marcel Wanders (2004) Klaus by Nienkamper, available in 7 colours.


Two Tops Secretary, Klaus by Nienkamper

Two Tops Secretary, Klaus by Nienkamper. Photo Credit: Angus Fergusson for House & Home (Full page & Close-up).




Above: Stick and Ball Table, home of Meg Crossley, Senior Editor, H&H - (from my post at Design Sponge - April/09). Below: Another one from Meg's home and my D*S post placed in her front hall. A beautiful chair (and couldn't resist the cat). Photo credits: Sarah Hartill.





TROLLSTA table, Ikea. Removable tray (steel) with solid birch underframe designed by Wiebke Braasch. An easy and affordable find to add the look in any room.

Spooled furniture like this can easily be found in local vintage/antique shops, find one that needs a little fixing up (add some black paint) and voila, instant look of the moment for less!

Happy New Year

As 2009 comes to a close and we enter 2010 we would like to thank all our wonderful couples whose weddings we worked on last year and hope they all had a lovely romantic festive time as newly weds!

As we come out of hibernation this week, due to lots of rain here over Christmas! we are hugely excited about this coming year, many wonderful weddings to plan, design, style and look forward to and we are even busier than ever.

We are also looking forward to our new venture with the joining forces of Reviva Weddings and Earthscent to bring the first wedding floral design studio and shop to Southern Spain.

Not only we will be offering fabulous wedding flowers, but a whole host of gorgeous, stylish wedding decorations, accessories, gifts, books, craft items, stationery and inspirational ideas for your wedding here in Spain. Watch this space for more information as we work towards our official opening here at the end of January 2010.

Winter Song

Winter Song from Crush Design on Vimeo

A sweet old song and animation for a winter's day.
And just as an fyi - if things start to look a little funny around here in the next few days or so, we're just going though Phase I of our (what seems) annual blog re-design which we hope to have in place soon. Then to follow Phase II moving away from blogger! Fun times!

Happy New Year!

Just chiming in to wish you all a very Happy New Year and fit in "one" last holiday-themed post with these awesome gingerbread houses that were up for bid (for charity) at the Museum of Vancouver this past month. The talented Vancouver-based design collective, Creative Room put out a call to architects and designers to "re-envision the traditional typology of the gingerbread house.” Click here to see the finalists. Nick Milkovich Architects’ Sugar Shack, pictured above. (Via Museum of Vancouver blog).