A pouf for everyone.

1 Nénuphares by Smarin.
2 Original by Fatboy.
3 Gumball by Alberto Brogliato.
4 Drops pouf by Camilla Hounsell Halvorsen.
5 Skitsch Zucca pouf by Todd Bracher.
6 Urchin pouf by Christien Meindertsma.
7 Pompon by Crop.
8 Livingstones by Smarin.

Inspiring song for an epic Monday.

Today I'm posting a very special song for me.

It was been a while without listening to it and, yesterday, I heard it again. It was in one of these courageous videos of the Saturday's Champions League victory of Barça. When I heard the first notes yesterday I almost started crying, it's such an emotional song.

It's from the soundtrack of the TV series Friday Night Lights (adapted from the book and film of the same name). I really loved this TV show although it finished a few months ago. 

The song is played by Explosions in the sky and the song is called Your hand in mine. This is the version with strings.

I hope you like it too.

Giant objects.

Claes Oldenburg is a Swedish sculptor who makes large replicas of everyday objects. He was born in 1929 and moved to Chicago in 1936. He went to Yale University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He's been associated with the Pop Art movement since the 1960s. He created most of his sculptures in collaboration with his late wife Coosje van Bruggen. More here.

1 Lipstick on caterpillar tracks, 1969-1974, Connecticut
2 Clothespin, 1976, Philadelphia
3 Garden Hose, 1983, Germany
4 Screwarch, 1983, Netherlands
5 Balancing tools, 1984, Germany
6 Free stamp, 1991, Ohio
7 Matches, 1992, Spain
8 Dropped cone, 2001, Germany
9 Shuttlecocks, 1994, Missouri


Images: 1 and 2, 3 and 5, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9

Danish hotel furniture.

These three pieces of furniture were designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 for the Radisson SAS Hotel in Copenhagen. Jacobsen designed the hotel, its furniture, its cutlery...

From left to right: Drop Chair, Swan Chair, Egg Chair.

Lots of his designs have been replaced, but there's still one room (606, which is available for booking) with the original furniture upholstered in green and the wood pannels.

I totally love the curvy shapes of these pieces and the wide variety of upholstery. They look great as a perfect reading lounge chair like in this last picture.

 Images: Drop chair, Swan and Egg chair.

Succulent plants.

These are some photos I took at the succulent plants garden in Barcelona. The garden is called "Mossèn Costa i Llobera" and is located in Montjuïc. It's like a museum of this type of vegetation and it also has beautiful views of the city and the sea.

Images by Muffins in my backpack.

DIY: Polka dot wall.

I moved to a new flat while ago, everything was so white and impersonal. The picture above shows one of my bedroom walls. I'm still in college but I didn't want my place filled with posters of movies and bands (althought you can see Amélie's poster on the left corner).

I wanted something wonderful to look at and I came with the idea of designing a polka dot wall.

I had plenty of photos taken with a fisheye camera that had to be circle shaped. I bought a circle cutter and did the job!

Apart from that, I put a mirror and a hanging clothes organizer to keep all my scarfs.

Images by Muffins in my backpack.

Sun and design.

This weekend I went to an exhibition of outdoor furniture by Paola Lenti.

There were plenty of awesome sofas, armchairs, chaise longues, poufs... upholstered with Aquatech and Rope (resistant to UV rays and water). They had designs for every situation. I loved them!

 All images from Paola Lenti.

Inspiring song for a quiet Monday.

While doing the post last friday, I remembered how beautiful is the soundtrack.

The music itself takes you to a magical place, and it's perfect for a little daydreaming (and disconnect from work during three minutes).

The soundrack is precious and it was composed by Yann Tiersen. Here's the theme "Comptine d'un autre été: l'après-midi". Enjoy!

How a garden gnome can change your life.

I love the film Amélie. Everybody should watch this film at least once in their lives!

I think I’ve watched it more than ten times and I always find some beautiful details I hadn’t notice before. How awesome is that?!

I especially adore the sub-plot of Amélie’s father garden gnome; and that’s the reason of this post. 

Amélie’s mother has died and Amélie’s father has fixed his garden gnome and put it on the top of his wife’s grave to honor her. Amélie is worried about his father and she tries to convince him that he has to do things that cheer himself up, such as travelling, one of his major dreams.

He won’t listen to her, so she comes with a perfect idea and steals the garden gnome.

One day his father receives a letter with a polaroid photo of his garden gnome in Moscow. Shortly after, his garden gnome sends him another letter from New York. And from Cambodja. His garden gnome is travelling around the world, and has also visited the Monument Valley, Athens, Istanbul…

Later on, we discover that one of Amélie’s friends is a flight attendant. She has been carrying the garden gnome all over the world, taking pictures and sending them to Amélie’s father. Then, the gnome is returned back home. Amélie’s plan has succeeded and, finally, his father is courageous enough to accomplish his dream of travelling.

I absolutely love this story. It makes me think about how we can change the life of people we love. Maybe something irrelevant to us means the world to another person.

I picked the pictures directly from the movie (play&pause + print screen).

Easy Edges.

Frank O. Gehry designed a series of furniture designs called “Easy Edges” from 1969 to 1973, altough not all the pieces have been manufactured. These designs are made of multiple layers of corrugated cardboard (in alternate directions) assembled with hidden screws. To make it more durable the edges are covered with fibreboard.

 

Probably the most famous piece of the whole collection is the wiggle side chair (also with coloured-fibreboard edgings) because of its characteristic shape.

 

Dining table and side chairs.

Low table, side tables and daisy coffee table.

Wiggle stool and  R bar stool.

Rocking chair.

Lounge chair with ottoman.

The use of this material is a really good idea; it’s cheap, lightweight, and easy to make different shapes. It’s quite surprising that a material such as cardboard is able to bear us.

Images: wiggle chair; coloured wiggle chair; dining set; low tables, stools and rocking chair; lounge chair with ottoman.