(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

photos via freewilliamsburg and Yelp

By the way, HOW CUTE IS MY HOST MOM AMINA?

Anyway– before I get stuck in a caps-lock Morocco love fest: I was rather ecstatic to find the Grenada Tile Echo catalogue that not only has tiles like these but has this whole website set up where you can personalize each element by color! Yes, ECSTATIC over tiles. (Oops, there goes that caps-lock again.)

My favorite, of course, are the “Normandy” collection. I also like them softened with some grey details too:

And I kind of love the “Taniger” and not just because it’s named after a Moroccan city… I went all green and blue for this one:

Naturally I wrote them to get a quote on what, say, 80 square feet would cost me and I got an oh so detailed response that essentially translated into: “Mother god, you like tiles but do you $2000 like them?”

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

It’s about how recent changes in the book industry are seriously diminishing authors’ royalties, which may sound greedy and whiney at first but come on now, do people want to live in a world where we never pay for culture so then people never devote their lives to creating it because they can’t survive making it?

This is a topic that’s dear to me as both a writer and a consumer. But I’d be lying if I said I had a very clear vision for how to fix this.

Check out the whole article here.

Steven and I went down to Brooklyn City Hall this week and put a ring on it. Two rings on it to be precise. Then we went straight up to Graham & Co in the Catksills for a quick honeymoon. (It would have seemed weird to just go back to apartment and what, answer some emails? Rent a movie?)

Graham & Co, in their own words, is “an update on the traditional weekend away” aka it’s an old motel now entirely design-ified with reclaimed wood furniture, vaguely “ethnic” textiles, edison bulbs, and mason jars upon mason jars.

To be clear, I say this with love. They’re so damn on-trend it’s adorable.

I can’t wait to return some time this summer and get in on the pool and bonfire action!

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

(Last two photos from Graham & Co website.)

Have you ever seen the photo website Humans of New York? It’ll make you love New York too.

I like brushing my teeth and thinking about that strange motel in Montana, that boat ride down the Niger river trying to get to Timbuktu, that day we spent drinking beers in the plaza of Villa De Lleyva in Colombia…

I had to hold onto one drawing though. It’s still in our shower. Most people don’t even notice it at first.

And when they see it, they think, “Is that what I think that is?” And they step into our tub to get a closer look and–

Yup. That’s what it is.

P.S. That’s a Steven original from a playbill we designed for a production of Dorian Gray.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

And I LOVE them. No really, I loooooooooooooooooove them! They’re so sleek and comfy and bouncy. Every time I walk by them I smile.

The other two are acting as our desk chairs in our home office but this place is such a pit right now I cannot bring myself to photograph it. We’ve got big plans for up here though– so get ready for a good Before & After some time soon.

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)

And by the way, WE DIDN’T DO IT. We swear.

While Galimberti says, “At their age, they are pretty all much the same; they just want to play” he also notes that there were a few interesting differences:

Galimberti found that children in richer countries were more possessive with their toys and that it took time before they allowed him to play with them (which is what he would do pre-shoot before arranging the toys), whereas in poorer countries he found it much easier to quickly interact, even if there were just two or three toys between them.

Aw come on rich kids. Share your shit!

And yup, that’s a C + S monogram. Thank you Mom!

Here are some other cozy linen beds via the oh-so-lovely My Scandinavian Home.

Sooooooo sleeeeeeeeeepy…

(What is I Love Lamp? This is I Love Lamp.)