Inspiration comes in so many forms, and can feel so good in your hand... like these solid graphite pencils from the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The weight is SO nice! And then combine it with great colors from your usual graphite options to gold, silver, and purple!!! And on top of that, add great quotes from some fun and inspiring artists... does it get more NOTCOT than this Warhol quote? "I never read, i just look at the pictures." ~ Well that just about sums up how i feel about why i needed NOTCOT.org in my life, sometimes we just need pictures to float through us to interpret as we wish...

Others are:
Max Ernst: All good ideas arrive by chance
Marc Chagall: Great art picks up where nature ends.
Robert Rauschenberg: "Now" is my competition.
Robert Rauschenberg: A canvas is never empty.
Pablo Picasso: Everything you can imagine is real.
Diane Arbus: Nothing is ever the same as they said it was..
Salvador Dali: I don't do drugs. I am drugs.
Salvador Dalí: Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Luckily the Moderna Museet has a webshop too! See more pics on the next page as usual...

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Tags: gifts - museum - pens - quotes - shopping - stockholm - sweden

And thus begins the posts from the all the Swedish shopping i couldn't resist that led to an inevitable Rimowa purchase... It was really quite bizarre trying to explain to the US immigration fellow what i did and why i was declaring things like toys, a watering can, a bird feeder, a suitcase and more randomness on my customs form... somehow all of this leads to him telling me about how he's retiring soon and looking to redecorate his house and chatting about products (with a huge line waiting behind me! Oh! The guilt!)

So firstly, the watering can i found at my favorite, Design Torget. I was smitten. So simple. So iconic. So multipurpose. (Come on, get creative... imagine serving drinks from it? crazy cocktail serving contraption for shots straight into your mouth?) Part of the Born in Sweden collection, this is the Watering Can designed by Pascal Charmolu. It was apparently a nominee for the Årets Sak Design Award 2008. A simple stainless steel cylinder with a rubber hose attached to the bottom... and a magnet holds the hose to the cylinder to stop the flow... and simply playing with gravity you can adjust the water flow and strength... It's so fun! And can also make for a gorgeous vase as it sits on the shelf... Of course i bought the vibrant red. See more pics of the details and awesome packaging on the next page!

p.s.
how awesome is the silhouette of the watering can?

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Tags: gifts - plants - shopping - stockholm - sweden - water

I know. I go rather quiet for a few days as i travel far too much the last few months, still not sure what day or time zone i'm in most of the time, but one thing i'm sure of... it's 5:30 am and i should be sleeping, but i'm staring at such an awesome bathroom here in the Lydmar Hotel, i just had to share it with you before i go sleep. The slate tiles floor to ceiling... the incredible lighting... the way the fixtures all seem to float... the contrast in textures... the hardcore thick grey blinds... I suppose the part that i'm smitten with most is the inset mirror that then doubles as a shelf, as well as a beautifully lit frame (only lit by two strips of light along the sides), and everything on the shelf looks so dramatic! So take a look at more details... including the packaging of their Byredo Parfums Tailor's Cotton line of toiletries...

p.s.
you also have to see the room key... it looks like a car key... and they all have different keychains!

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Tags: bathroom - home - hotels - luxury - stockholm - sweden - travel

So since that top picture is what i am literally lying in bed staring at as i write this post (yes, i went to paris/versailles for barely 24 hours, and am now in stockholm)... and since it's already 4:30am, and i'm kind of on a chandelier high (they are kind of mesmerizingly stunning, and at the moment, i just feel drawn to standing directly under them and looking up)... figured i'd show you the crazy contrast between chandeliers from Versailles and the various more modern chandeliers here at the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm. More to come on the Lydmar soon, but it has definitely jumped up on my list of favorites quickly ~ there's something so nice about their eclectic mix of modern and woody and i'm completely smitten by the bathroom, particularly the lighting! But first... go see the rest of the modern chandelier mandala pics on the next page!

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Tags: furniture - home - hotels - lighting - stockholm - sweden

I love libraries, books, bookshelves, and since i was a little girl i've always wanted one of those massive libraries with a rolling ladder to climb and slide around on... maybe that's part of the inevitable draw i have to leaning bookshelves. Combine that with a sleek, slim, modular swedish design in stunning blacks and whites and you've got me. When i came across the Swedese Libri shelving unit at Tom Dixon's The Dock. Favorite aspects, they are slim, yet wide enough to stack my favorite bigger design books every which way interspersed with objects, and simple enough to fill a wall with half a dozen units and still have it look beautiful... or even attach them to each other for non-wall-leaning freestanding units. It's always bad news when you see, fall for, and already envision exactly how something would fit into your space. Take a peek at more pics of it in context, in real life at The Dock, and product shots ~ on the next page!

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Tags: books - furniture - gifts - london - shopping - sweden

There's something so fun about the juxtaposition of animation running around the real world ~ adorable campaign by the Swedish Tourism board aimed at brits - Dave Goes To Skåne. When i first saw this over at CPLuv i had to go watch them all! Dave is a cheeky cartoon londoner running around mouthing off in some gorgeous swedish spots ~ and you cant help but laugh, then wish you too were lying on the beach, or climbing about designer goodness in the woods... see the 4 videos on the next page!

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Tags: advertising - animation - sweden - travel - video