diamond teardrops.

as amazingly chic the cube-/teardrop-/quartz-/tetra-/dodecahedron-terrariums (above) are, as expensive are they... now then I'll stick to the humble version of presenting my mini-cacti (as below).

Pallet Furniture.

Simply supercool. And the products & the pics show how very basic material can be totally stylish put into a great form and set up in a nice space. My favourite is the lamp. It really motivates my creativity to find shapes and build furniture myself. If you prefer to just copy these please honor the inspiring idea by puchasing the instructions via studiomama for like no money... You can even find the instructions for a pallet-stool *gratis*.

I found the pics via Maurício Arruda

Homestory approach.

These images do not (yet) have much to do with our home - it is still a chaos we're trying to fight. But I promise some insight soon.

The image above I found on "Old Chum" (about wich I blogged here before) which is one of my absolute favourite blogs. It is not an interior-design blog, the most inspiring stuff I find there is kind of abstract, in the sense of not directly applicable for my flat. The succulent above is, and as soon as I can turn my focus to things like plants I will definitely start a small succulent-garden. Until then there are for example the floors that need all our attention. We emptied the kitchen yesterday (and chased out the mouse that apparently lived behind the counters), ripped off the ugly PVC-flooring, scrubbed the floor (smelled like mouse-pee) and then sanded the old lack-finish so that today the new finish can follow. It will not be moss like in the pic below it will be fresh shiny white lack.

The image above is also via Old Chum, it is a print by Andrew Moore. It was taken in Detroit, where the most charming derelict buildings of the world seem to be (search google images: 'detroit derelict').
Below: the M3 chair by Thomas Feichtner. Which is a new object of crazy desire :) I found it via Love the triangle, the blog of my dear friend Josephine.

old chum.

via their blog Old Chum, through wich I could scroll for hours and hours I discovered the Old Faithful Shop that "stocks quality goods for simple, everyday living. We are drawn to products that are well-made, classic in design and when possible hand-crafted by a human being. We feel that the best products are the ones that age well and stand the test of time - items that will exist long after we do not."

This principle has an ecological aspect in itself (no, not plastic or nuclear waste that "will exist longer after we do not", but valuable, because practical and beautiful stuff, that can be used over generations).

And I fell in love with these two things: the Totem Cups are my absolute favourite available through their online shop and the bird house I found on the blog, don't know if it was ever available via the shop - if I had a garden to hang it I would hunt it down through all the web immediately.

The blog is really worth a "read" (well, it's more a view), you'll find a lot of 'ethnic' images, nostalgic stuff, wise (yes, really) sayings, uncommon interior design, nature. Just as I like it, as you probably noticed by now.

words by Anthony Carter, from his book "Abundant Rivers"

slow wood.

wood is wonderful.
I think it is a great material and it gives furniture a special, timeless worth and of course - warmth. Or as Christien Starkenburg from Slowwood says: "Wood keeps you connected with nature and the feeling for a simpler, slower life in this hurly burly world."

The Slowwood tables have extra value: they are hand made, eco-friendly and fantastic good looking. I adore the combination of the fine but raw natural elegance of wood and design and the bright, deep colours they use. It's just the right balance.

"Mineral pigments such as oxide, yellow ochre and earth black create unique matt colours. In fact some colours are the first earth paints used by mankind! Some colours take 1 week to dry! The slow aspect…"

noticed via design attractor

Sitting on the dancefloor.

The chair above by Michael Ferguson is made from recycled floorboards from flats in Berlin. Even though the surface seems to tell stories of thousands of feet dancing on them it is totally smooth, due to a lot offhand grinding and beeswax.

How much I would love to have one like it on my own few squarmetres of Berlin floor (I'm moving to Berlin in september!)...

The eco-quota in furnishing and decorating my future home will probably only involve raiding my parents and grandparents cellars & attics and a lot of fleamarket strolls - even though I found some more amazing green design and furniture via green living.

To see it for yourself:

Homemade Happiness.

Today I was inspired! by Johanna's blog and her post on garlands. I decided to make one of the simple ones to decorate my room, supporting the spring-feeling coming up here in Istanbul. It's really easy to make a garland, I did it like this:

1) take a carton, cut out a triangle with two same length longer legs as a stencil.
2) choose paper you like (left over wrapping papers? or coloured, patterned, I think even newspaperpaper would look nice, oh, and plain white for the garden?) and use the stencil to make as many triangles as you want for your garland.
3) fold each triangle along the short side aprox. 1 centimetre to the back. cut away the small overlapping corner parts right and left.
4) lay a twine into the fold of the first triangle of your garland and fix the fold at the corners with a stapler (>> staple free stapler).  Try to fix the twine inside the fold by stapling, if possible.
5) go on with the next triangle. and the next one. and the next one, and the next one... aaand finally hang it and be happy :)

If you want a free hanging garland, you should cut ot diamonds instead of triangles and fold them in the middle. I guess in that case it's easier to glue the halfs together instead of stapling.

Handy(wo)man.

Architect Le Van Bo from Berlin designed furniture you cannot buy, but build. His intention was to create classic, high quality furniture using ecologically recommendable materials - for low money, so that even people living on Hartz IV (german welfare) could afford it. It's not only the cheap chic, but especially the DIY aspect that is important to Le Van Bo:

"I was depending on welfare benefits for many years myself. With my Hartz IV furniture series I want to encourage people to - literally - take their lives in their own hands and really build the things themselves. Because like this you develop such a sense of achievement that afterwards, so do I belive, you will be able to master other things as well." (quoted and translated from here)

Above: The Kreuzberg 36 chair (Kreuzberg = quarter of Berlin, 36 = price in Euro for the material) is my favourite. If I just needed chairs...
Below: The 24 Euro chair. As well in the series: the SiWo-sofa (SiWo for single apartement), the piscator table and the Berlin stool.

The construction plans fit on one page each and are available for free via email, for the request just send your motivation, location and where you heard about the project. And afterwards images of your built furniture (optional). 

(images are excerpts from the catalogue to the exhibition "Perspectives on in/ outside" and taken from here)

Stilles Leben.

One more picture from the creepy but fascinating abandoned house on Uludag Mountain.

Oh wie rührend.

If I dream of my future kitchen I dream of the smell of freshly grinded coffee, a lot of froth on my cappuccino, fresh icy cold fruit-smoothie... ! R2B2 was made to fullfill my dreams and at the same time look incredibly good AND be ecofriendly!

This is ecological design at its best. German designer Christoph Thetard invented and shaped this kitchen aid with the robot name that runs completely without electricity.

What remains to wish for: That R2B2 will not stay a final year project-prototype, but that it will go into production.