small ritual

interior design

the relative lack of blogging or any other creative activity lately is because most of my spare-time energies have been going into sorting out my flat. my delicious links tell the story [of inspiration more than purchase, i should say!]. hopefully the wall panels will go up this weekend. then it will be finished enough to take some photographs.

in the meantime take a look at this marvellous 60s home. the stuff's mostly mass-market kitsch, but put together so well it's a design triumph. in this country one would call the national trust and ask them to preserve it for ever. the house is in los angeles, but almost every aspect of the interior is familiar to me from my childhood in england - clearly this idiom was universal. it brings back nagging non-specific memories - that wood wallpaper behind the dining table - who in my childhood had just that, and similar dining chairs too? my mum would know.

not on facebook

a t-shirt for me and jonny

the toys' christmas

this is the best window in oxford street this year. traditional, but delightful and popular.

grace as a perfume

only £44 in john lewis. more on flickr.

despair, inc

great t-shirts from despair inc. and they're on american apparel stock.

other stuff too.

via keep austin weird

pawnography

mike radcliffe is selling some amusingly naughty t-shirts

ariake

as i predicted four years ago, free running now has its own special shoes. soon to be seen on non-freerunners near you! i do like the white/brown/black version i must confess. would look good in the office ;)

as for the rest of my predictions - it's too late for the 2012 olympics [although it would have been appropriate, they could have used a brutalist housing estate or the south bank as a course]. it took snowboarding about 15 years. skateboarding's been refused [this time]. maybe 2020 for free running?

buy one get one tree

innocent drinks are running a tree-planting promotion on their large cartons - each carton has a unique code, go to their website and enter the code, and a tree is planted in a carbon-offsetting scheme by carbon clear. farmers are paid for tree survival and growth over ten years, rather than just seedlings planted, to give incentives for long-term benefits.

i'm suspicious of carbon-offsetting projects [lowering consumption is the only sure way] but this one came free with the drink, so why not.

bling and bikes

in selfridges, the aptly-named ego laptop:

which comes in a variety of couture finishes - this one has a diamond logo:

looks a bit like the grace logo doesn't it? who'll be the first at grace to buy one? how about our logo in diamonds? would certainly look good running worship off it at greenbelt. maybe we could hire one for the night...

also a couple of fixed wheel track bikes with paul smith colour schemes:

[as a teenager smith was aiming for a professional cycling career until a serious accident ended his hopes. while convalescing he made friends with art students, ended up running a boutique with his fashion-designer girlfriend, who encouraged him to train as a tailor, and the rest is history]