Lessons learned from our canoe glamping weekend in the Adirondacks: Having a private island is a must.
Hammocks are key. As are flowy caftans and cold beers.
Side tables made from driftwood and boyfriends are super deluxe.
Knife throwing is FUN.
Glassy water, canoes, and parasols are essential.
As are funny, talented, easy-going friends.
And campfires for stories and s'mores of course!
Today Steven and I are headed off to a lake in the Adirondacks to get our camping on! We're taking over a small island with ten friends and coolers full of refreshments. Unsurprisingly, I'm looking to turn this experience into glamping. For those of you not in the know, that is a totally real word made from glamour and camping. Think:
Unfortunately, at the moment our tent situation looks more like this: 
(We were giving it a test run in the living room today. Funnily enough, last time we used it we were driving cross-country and one night our camping plans got nipped in the bud when we heard it was going to reach below freezing. So we set up our tent in a hotel room instead. FUN.)
I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to bridge this gap between camping and glamping, but I know at the very least it's going to involve our hammock and a funky waterproof Malian rug we use on picnics. I'll post photos next week of how it goes!
(Glamping photos from Luxury Vacation Source)
I love these chairs. So sexy. Quite possibly horrendously uncomfortable. But so sexy.
(Photos from The Selby and Apartment Therapy)
I LOVE Malian fabrics. They're bonkers. All the colors and patterns-- they're totally wild, and totally not American. (Although funnily enough, they come from the Dutch once upon a time via the Dutch East India Company that traded in wax prints from Indonesia among many other things.) When Steven and I lived in Mali I bought yards upon yards of it--even wore it head to toe like everyone there does despite my New Yorker urge to always wear black-- and when we went back last year to visit I packed an extra empty duffle bag that was completely full of only fabric when we came home.
I don't really wear all of my African outfits on the regular nowadays--surprise, surprise-- but I do get to hang out with some of my fabric in my living room every day since this year I finally made some pillows from it:
I have SO MUCH more sitting all nicely folded on shelves just dying to come out. But I think Malian fabric is something that should be sprinkled about the place, not dumped all over. It's a little, um, BOLD to say the least.
On the note of Malian fabric, I have to mention one of my favorite shows ever from The Brooklyn Museum: Nigerian artistst Yinka Shonibare's 2009 exhibit where he took colonial scenes and outfitted the manikins in African fabric. Such cool juxtaposition. Here are bunch of dudes carving up Africa:
And I'm not sure what shenanigans these ladies are up to with their pistols, but it's a lot more PG than the hilarious orgies that also appeared in the exhibit. 
I loved the show so much I bought the book of it from the Museum Shop which I'd never done before. Shonibare is up to some seriously cool stuff. I highly recommend checking him out. You can start at his website here.
Yesterday the NY Times ran a kind of hilarious article called "How to Tell When You're Over-Propped".
Studying these spaces [that are featured on design blogs etc], one can’t help noticing that the décor seems to bear little relationship to the way people actually live: deer antlers adorn the walls of people who almost certainly don’t hunt; vintage typewriters sit on school desks too small to be functional; books have been arranged on shelves by color to reflect some perceived notion of good design.
The author goes on to warn you: "A few examples are shown on this page; if you can count three or more in your home, you may be over-propped."
How many of the following can you check off? Here are my results:
Books arranged by color? No. Vintage typewriter? Yes.
Edison bulb? No. Terrarium? No, but I feel like it would be dishonest of me not to admit to having a close cousin: a totally useless glass display case thing-y.
(It's a gift I made for Steven a few years ago-- he loves it when newspaper articles say "Scientists are baffled by xyz..." and so now he has his very own scientist who is constantly baffled by the rotation of things I put in with him/her.)
Monogrammed towels? Yes. But they were my parents', so does it still count?
Taxidermy? Nope. Le Crueset pot? Yup. Also a gift though... But maybe I should be given extra prop points since it is ridiculously tiny and adorable.
Bar cart? No. Fresh flowers? Sometimes. Vintage fan? Not an official yes, but I do have this new one that's meant to look vintage.
So all in all, unsurprisingly, this count points to our apartment being over-propped! I will have to stay vigilant and make sure I don't become a "design victim" by succumbing to more... Sorry chalkboard paint, letterpress posters, accent walls, and all things chevron-- I've got no more design room for you!
Maybe it's because it's beautiful out today, but I'm finding it funny and refreshing (as opposed to bleak and discouraging) to think that none of us are quite so original as we like to think we are.
When I was in Morocco this past March working on that documentary I spent the last five days of the trip alone in the city I used to live in, Rabat.
While its souqs are not nearly as famous and bustling as those of Marrakech or Fez, there are still plenty of treasures to be found. I picked up all kinds of classic Moroccan goodies like leather slippers, caftans, scarves, and hand painted ceramics but my absolute favorite finds were these two handmade lanterns:
Funnily enough, I was so wrapped up in the joking and arguing that went into the haggling process (I got the shop keeper down to less than $9 each!) that I didn't notice they weren't exactly the same size until I got back to my hotel room. That said, I kind of like that about them now. It emphasizes their handmade element that is missing from all the other factory-made crap in my life.
They're about a foot and half tall, so needless to say they were a real bitch to pack but I've wanted a pair of them ever since I first went to Morocco eight years ago, so it was totally worth awkwardly lugging them around the airport.
Living with souvenirs from my travels is one of my favorite ways to keep those memories and friendships in the forefront of my mind. That said, sometimes it's hard to work your finds into your State-side life. For example, what the hell am I going to do with this giant coffee bag and four ponchos from Colombia?
I love me a hammock or a swing inside. It's delightfully unexpected and SO MUCH MORE FUN than a regular old couch or chair to hang out on. Steven and I brought back a hammock from Colombia last summer after having spent many-a-night in one while backpacking through the country. Much to my mother's horror, we hung it in our work studio:
I think she's coming around... If only because she knows at least we had a contractor come and install it properly for us.
Since then I can't stop collecting more photos of other indoor hammocks and swings, which miiiight be a problem since I really can't have more than one swinging piece in my apartment. (Or can I?!)
(And apologies for the lack of photo credits-- I started collecting these before I began this blog and had no plans to post them publicly. If one of these is yours and you would like me to take it down or credit you just let me know!)
Every Friday I'm going to post something design related tagged I Love Lamp because honestly, sometimes when I'm flipping through Elle Decor I feel JUST like "Anchorman" character Brick Tamland when he says...
Except I REALLY love the lamp.
My first I Love Lamp post kind of has to be about a light fixture, so here is a photo of one I made from a cheap Chinese lantern, hardstock paper cut into triangles, and scotch tape that hangs above my bed:
For some reason it reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are by Muarice Sendak. Maybe it's their teeth?
I got the idea to make it a couple years ago from the from the design-crack site Designsponge, one of my Top 20 Places of Procrastination.
Come back next Friday for more lamp-lovin'!