Prepare Yourself For an Absolute Musical Thrill!

Beloved Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music (an English, Art/Romantic rock band that I was besotted with and shaped by as a teen in the early 80s) has a whole new musical offering for 2013: The Bryan Ferry Orchestra, 'The Jazz Age.' I cannot wait to own this, but to ease the wait, we can listen to Ferry's jazzed-up, 30's-style Roxy tunes on NPR!

 

 

NPR had this to say:
This is just about the most surprising album in recent memory, and a complete joy. The singer for Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry has also enjoyed a long solo career, both as an interpreter of songs by others — Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, Cole Porter, Lou Reed and many more — and as an extraordinary songwriter who's released 13 solo albums, each with its own strengths.

Still, nothing prepared me for The Jazz Age, an instrumental album which re-imagines Ferry's work and the songs of Roxy Music as if they were performed by a 1920s jazz band. Colin Good, who arranged the album (working with Ferry and The Bryan Ferry Orchestra), is a British composer and arranger known for his work in theater and television, as well as with a 1930s-style orchestra known as Vile Bodies. The result of the collaboration sounds incredibly fresh, capturing both the eccentricity that has always been a part of Ferry's music and the romance conjured up by the vintage sound. Warmly recorded and wonderfully performed, The Jazz Age (out Feb. 12) works on many levels. If you don't know the songs, the melodies stand on their own, and if you do, prepare yourself for an absolute thrill.

Listen, and be bemused, enthralled, enchanted.... enjoy!

Mae Engelgeer Textiles

The Minimalist has an artist spotlight of Mae Engelgeer's textiles. I love these beautiful & dynamic designs and colorways!

These images are from her display at the recent design event ‘Inside Design: Amsterdam’ where Engelgeer showcased her ‘Woww’ collection. 

I adore Mae's Tea Towel Collection, and "Fest" Collection.
Take a peek at Mae's website.

A whimsical doll cradle for our birthday girls ~

For their birthdays my husband and I gave our two daughters (who turned 7 and 2) a large doll bed that I refurbished from an old baby cradle. I gave it a fun Scandinavian/mythical animals pattern from textiles designer Lena Corwin. (For a piece of furniture that was clunky and brown and pretty ugly to start with, we were pleasantly pleased with its new look!)





With 4 layers of over-painting, and oodles of stencil cutting (first from photocopies, and then from contact paper), making this was a labor of love! Our daughters were over-the-moon on birthday party morning!
 
   
   
The mythical animal stencils were patterns I gratefully copied from the book Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens, by textile designer Lena Corwin. This project from Corwin's book was the inspiration: