M & Co

Guest Blog: Vintage Love

 

Hi guys!  I'm Diana from Please Sir and while Monica is on vacation she graciously asked me to guest blog.  I hope you are as excited as I am, and thanks again Monica for the invitation! 

I'm a thrill of the hunt kind of gal, and one of my loves is vintage finds.  The atmosphere, the smells, and the excitement of a good fleamarket or yard sale gets my heart beating...or could it be all the 6:00am caffeine?  The saying "the early bird gets the worm" is taken very seriously in the world of bargain finds.  If you want first pick you have to get there early.  My fleamarketing days started as a pre-teen being dragged by my parents to yard sales.  I literally mean dragged...hey, I was a teenager...I didn't understand the concept of getting up early on the weekends!  My vintage finds obsession started to blossom during my college years when it came time to decorate my first apartment.  The Target dorm items didn't suit me, and I couldn't afford high end furniture pieces.  My apartment slowly became a hodgepodge of yard sale finds from my parents that I still have and covet to this day.  Once I started blogging on Please Sir I wanted to share my finds with everyone, and show the possibilities of displaying fleamarket finds.  Besides their uniqueness, vintage finds add history and character to a home.  I'm still new to fleamarketing, but I hope as my design sense expands and my paycheck gets bigger (maybe!) then I will be able to share more with others. 

I truly believe that you don't find vintage items, they find you.  What's your best fleamarket find?  Happy hunting!

New logo

                   

I'm having insomnia ..I think I'm a bit over excited about changing my job, and starting my holiday (I'm a kid..I know!)... so I'm sitting here playing with my favorite tools Inkscape and Gimp, and now I have a new logo..at least until I get tired and change it again...

and one more thing, my sweet friend Poppins gave me this award, and her kind and beautiful words warmed my heart soo much!!  You ought to drop by her and admire her stunning rosegarden!!

I'm on vacation

Image:Runwayinflight.com & Panteek.com.

I'm on vacation for the next two weeks, but fear not, I've asked some of my favorite bloggers to guest post here while I'm away! So it will be plenty to look forward to! They have my highest trust, so I have no idea what they'll write about, but knowing them, I know it will be super stylish! :-)

I had my last day at work on Friday, and on the 11th of August I'll start my new job, buying flowers ;-) After spending 6 years at the same company it was weird saying goodbye to all my good colleagues, but for me it was definitly the time to make a change over to something I'm truly passionate about .-)

I'm now busy packing, and planning my holiday wardrobe. I'm not leaving before tomorrow afternoon, so I'll be around until then, but quite busy preparing for my trip. Leaving everything till the last minutes means I'm actually doing my laundery now, ironing, cleaning the house, applying self tan lotion (Don't want to look like I've spent the past 7 months, blogging in front of my computer....) and giving myself a manicue and pedicure ...all at the same time :-)

I wish you all a delightful summer, and I'm looking forward to "see" you all when I get back .-) I'm gonna miss you!!

ArtPlayFactory Milano

Images: ArtPlayFactory.com + atcasa.corriere.it

I'm totally in love with the work of Italian ArtPlayFactory. Usually I'm not one to love design furniture, but it is something so eclectic and soulful with the work of this company! I adore that Pluriball lamp! So what do you think?

And I would love to hear your thoughts on mass produced "designer" furniture and items. Love it or hate it or are you like me feeling abit ambivalent about it? What do you get for your own home; handmade, antiques, flea market, interior line products or  old or new designer furniture?

Eccentris

Photo: Sacha Dean Biyan

Love the work of photographer Sacha Dean Biyan, check out his super stylish portfolio at his website Eccentris

Summer reading has arrived

Today my summer reading arrived from Amazon. You can see more on the books in My Amazon Favorites

DIY Headscarf

                 

Image by me ;-) Don't laugh. Its my first attempt at drawing with a mouse!! Scarf by Hermes (Who else?!)

If you, like me, can not boast the hair qualiy of those Italian beauties in some of my past post, I'll tell you what I do if you still want to wear a headscarf without it sliding down.-)

I have lots of silk scarves that I like to use in different ways, so I'm not going to sew in the and destroy their multipurpose use.

This is what you do: Get a flat,broad plastic hair band. Fold your scarf like you'd normally do when using it as a head scarf, just broader. Fold over plastic hairband, leaving ca 50mm on each side on the top, and a little less towards the sides. Fasten with safety pins ;-)

Simple and useful!

A peek at Autumn

Linda Evangelista by Steven Meisel, Vogue Italia Giugno 2008 

Today I bought Vogue Italia, the August issue, and the cover is the best magazine cover I've seen in years! (Scanner's not working, and I've searched everywhere to find it..so I had to use another photo from the story)  Steven Meisel has photographed Linda Evangelista for the fashion photo story "The Dutchess Linda Evangelista." She looks like taken out of a 1950's movie and its fabulous ...the whole story is one big treat!

You can see the complete story in Vogue Italias Photostory Archive, which I discovered today, and which by the way is fantastic!!! (Click on the link to the Photostory on the left hand. Click on Archive on the bottom of the page. Choose your story :-))

And on the topic of the "Golden years", check out this post at This is glamourous!

Headscarf obsession

Images: Claudia Cardinale, Hermes Scarf 

After posting the image of Sophia Loren in that gorgeous pink and green headscarf the other day I've kind of gotten a bit of a headscarf crush, and here is another chic Italian, Claudia Cardinale wearing a headscarf!

Villa Mista - Byblos Art Hotel

Images: Byblos Art Hotel, Villa Mista, Verona, Italy.

While browsing the net, trying to turn Italian Chic I stumbeled upon the fabulous Villa Mista -  Fashion brand Byblos Art Hotel! The famous Italian designer and architect Alessandro Mendini has created a stunning interior with a mix of Baroque and Modern style, which seems the perfect fit for the 15th century facade. And the best thing is you can even buy the beds if you sleep well in them ;-) !!