Digital Meltdown

I know.

We've been as M.I.A. lately as Kanye's impulse control.

I'm really, really sorry about that. And I don't even have an ill-timed Hennessy to blame it on (the over-used joke OR the prolonged unexplained absence).

I think I just had a total digital communication overload. Have you ever felt that? This was the first time since I started blogging/facebooking/twittering/instant messaging/thought beaming that I experienced it. I hope I'm not the only one who's ever felt it. The best way to describe it was that I just couldn't keep up. I needed to take a step back into the cave and recollect my thoughts.

But now we're back.

We might take a little bit different approach to the blog now. For anyone who remembers, we had this idea to post every day on different topics and we came up with clever-ish names for the different days and everything. As a kid, one of my friend's moms had every shelf in the pantry color-coded and labeled (with an actual label-maker, which immediately raises its bearer to wizard status when you're nine and it's 1990). My awe at this totally impractical arrangement is the only thing I can think to blame for the "naming the days" thing.

We're just going to post now as an outlet-- to connect with you, to share cool stuff we find (regardless of the day), to give you occasional updates on Junky, to have fun. We won't have any more breakdowns and disappear for three months. Problem solved.

But to anyone still reading (especially Aunt Sue), we're sorry for being such blog dingos. We hope you'll forgive us.

Wishlist #4

This week's drool-worthy items:




Monogram wax seals:
I've seen a lot of monogrammed pendants around and of course I am a sucker for great, monogrammed items to personalize a present, a wardrobe or a house. But I am particularly in LOVE with this necklace. They are all hand made so every one will be slightly different- and therein lies the beauty. I am for sure going to buy one of these today!




Gustavian Vintage Bed:
I have been looking for a great headboard for a while. I love the old-school, velvet headboards and have had my eye on those for a while. But I wasn't quite sold, until I saw this version from Vive Terra. I love how it takes the feminine form of headboard and mixes it with the masculine, unfinished wood. Perfect for a couples bedroom.... other than the price. I wish I was handy enough to make this myself. Any ideas?




Catherine Hammerton's Scalloped Wallpaper.
Wallpaper is such a fun way to add color and pattern to any room but I especially love this paper because it adds texture as well. I tried my hand at wallpapering a few months ago and I have to say, it wasn't as tricky as you might think (and I had a a pattern I had to line up!) Plus, a lot of papers now are pre-pasted and are made to come off the wall a lot more easily than papers in the past. So, yes, I am officially obssessed!

To Do List #2: Start doing "To Do Lists" on time

We really have been lame on this "To Do List" section. Partly because we keep feeling like all we have to report is that we're working hard and waiting. And that's kind of boring. But we do have some pretty fun news to report today. Because this just happened:



Yes, you'll be able to find Junky Heirloom products in Kate's Paperie soon! We are SO excited. Kate's is one of those places that, as a paper enthusiast (not sure I could have come up with a more geeky title for that), is kind of a big one. We remember going into Kate's when we lived in New York and thinking, "Man, it would be so cool if we ever had something in here." And now we will! So, this is definitely a moment. And it's a much-needed boost of confidence as we keep working to get Junky Heirloom into all the other places we have loved and revered (we're coming for you, Anthropologie).

And, perhaps even more importantly to our husbands, we will not be packing this order by hand. We've learned our lesson.

Hitlist #3: Tim Burton

I am in love with Tim Burton.

From the candy-colored realm of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory to the dark and dreary world of a London serial killer, director Tim Burton has built his reputation on bringing wildly imaginative worlds to life. (Case in point: Edward Scissorhands-- one of my favorite movies of all time. ) So when I heard that his next movie was “Alice in Wonderland,” I knew he was the perfect person to bring the surreal world on the other side of the looking glass to life. When I saw these pictures, the art direction blew me away! He is a genius.










The cast is amazing: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Crispin Glover and Anne Hathaway to name a few. I can’t wait to see this movie. Read more about it here.

Playlist #3

Wagon Wheel- Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show has been around for a while, but I was recently introduced to this song by my brother and I can't stop listening to it. It's based off a fragment of a Bob Dylan song. Here is what the lead singer has to say about it.

"I heard a Dylan song that was unfinished back in high school and I finished it . . As a serious Bob Dylan fan, I was listening to anything he had put on tape, and this was an outtake of something he had mumbled out on one of those tapes. I sang it all around the country from about 17 to 26, before I ever even thought, 'oh I better look into this.'"^[9]

I know, I know. When my brother told me that they did that, I thought, "Wait? Can they do that?" But since they've recorded this song, Bob Dylan has signed a co-writing contract with OCMS for the song. Cool, huh?

• Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show

More Old Crow Medicine Show music on iLike

Wishlist #3

Is it strangely materialistic of me to start every week with all the stuff I want? All right then, let's get started.






Bludot furniture

It's not just that this bold fun furniture company was started by college friends (a formula rather dear to my heart). It's that they create a lot of stuff I want. Their energy and imagination has been described as "positively Eamesian" (not sure what better compliment you can give a modern furniture enthusiast) and they've stayed mostly true to their vision to provide affordable modern furniture options that don't come from Scandinavia. I think I liked the couches in their line last year a little better than this year, but some of their shelving especially is to die for. I will own the shelf above someday, somehow. See more here.






Outdoor Furniture

I'll take this hot little deck combo. Except for the creepy kid staring out from behind the tree. No, even with him. We have a pretty good deck thing going in the place we live in now and I am dying to make it all cool with some outdoor furniture. Only problem is, I also want indoor furniture right now too. Which means the option above isn't really an option. Good thing the Ikea summer catalog has some pretty good choices this year.




(found via grassrootsmodern.com-- a blog I love so check it out)


Jonathan Adler Whale Butter Dish

Who doesn't want a whale hanging around their kitchen? I'm kind of thinking whales might replace birds as my fall-back home decor animal of choice (those little birds deserve a rest-- they've been working so hard for the last five years). It's kind of pricey, but might be worth the fun. Available fro Jonathan Adler here.


Have a great week everybody!

To Do List #2 (but we kind of missed #1)

So this is our first official entry in this blog category due to our baby shower-induced absence last week. In case you forgot, this is where we let you know where we're at with our Junky Heirloom progress.

Today, I am just amazed at how much we are learning right now. When we started this whole thing, we really had no idea how complicated, rewarding, demanding, etc. it would be. We're learning to be patient, to push hard and then let things happen, to look for ways to help other people because, inevitably, someone else is helping you too. It's hard to be patient when you care about something like this. But, turns out, patience is a pretty big deal in life and I was bound to be forced to learn it sooner or later.

We have some things in the works that could be game changers-- or could not. We have some people that we think are amazing that seem really interested-- but who knows. We're making some really great progress-- that we probably won't see the benefits of for a while. But we're also finding that, when you love what you do, your threshold for dealing with all this stuff somehow manages to stretch to fit whatever you have to do.

One of our goals with this blog was to honestly represent the process of going after your dreams and starting a business to do it. It's a lot of work. Some days are really scary. Some days you just want to walk away and pretend like this is not your baby. Some days you can't keep the grin off your face. It's OCD-inducing. But it's also pretty cool.