Belly's

OFFICE REVEAL AND GOOD NEWS

Phew... You must be thinking this post is fata morgana at this point, huh? So where have I been?

1. I've been finishing the office redo. Yep, there are photos below. I must say I regret having them taken (by the talented and charming Dana Israeli) at this point. I think there is a lot more to accomplish before this space is finished, but enough rambling, here it is.

BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

2. I started working with Gili Ungar. Yep, the designer I profiled here. For the last few weeks we've been working together. I'm working on content, new concepts and services, while also doing some styling and decorating. We're having a blast together (seriously, I love people who are both talented and nice!) and we even got a beautiful write-up from the lovely Danika at Gorgeous Shiny Things!

 

3. I'm writing. A lot. Over the last few months I got the opportunity to interview (among others) Casper Vissers from Moooi, Kelley l. Moore, Eddie Ross, Holly Becker, Yvonne from Yvestown and I even chatted with Dror Ben Shitrit and Raphael Navot. I promise to upload some of this goodness to the blog soon!

So how are you? What have you been up to while I was gone? I can't wait to hear it all!

OFFICE REDO PART DEAUX

Why hello there, people! It's been ages, hasn't it? I've been busy working on the "during" of the office I'm designing for my parents (see the "befores" here), plus meeting some writing deadlines. How have you been?

 

Source: emmas.blogg.se via Chedva on Pinterest

 

So, as promised, I'm back with the inspiration files. As you can see, we're talking light paint colors (still not decided on the specific shade of barely there grey), green seating, mod furniture and very simple storage with accents of blue, orange and gilt.

 

Source: lesueurinteriorsblog.com via Chedva on Pinterest

 

I do actually have some progress to report (and let me tell ya, being ahead of a deadline for once feels super-duper exciting). Today I had the hideous mauve carpeting removed, the cement platform stripped and the exposed walls covered in plaster so we can paint. I also had a meeting with the electrician and decided where to move/add/remove outlets, and he will do his thing on Monday. After he's finished and the new air conditioning is installed, the office will get painted... (hold on, that's the end of the boring construction talk, decorating talk comes after the next picture)

Jonathan Adler

Well, now to the fun stuff! I spent the afternoon in the Jaffa flea market with my dear friend who happens to be an uber-talented decorator and we picked up the most handsome, masculine mid-century desk that came with an adorable little storage unit. We proceeded to find a pair of the cutest modish chairs on earth (each has two tufts on their backs, which make them look like cartoon characters) for the most ridiculously cheap price. We made up for that by choosing a ridiculously expensive Canovas fabric (but still within the budget limits): light moss green for the chairs and a not-so-subtle floral for the seat cushions. We even brought them to the upholsterer already!

domino (see how only the sofa's seat cushions are upholstered in a floral?)

Don't ask me why I didn't take any pictures - I have no idea! I guess I was just too held up in the excitement of our great finds. This cute yellow chair reminds me a little of mine; not the details, but the vibe.

 

Source: homeshoppingspy.wordpress.com via Chedva on Pinterest

 

What do you think so far? Does it sound good? I hope to be back here next week with progress photos, and meanwhile I'd love to hear your opinions!

GO STYLE!

I'm a published writer! Squeal! Well, now that I got that out...

My first column/spread/regular feature is out today. and I couldn't be more excited. It's my first time being published (byline and all) and I think it came out beautifully, what do you think? This will be a regular feature where I'll showcase the leading design trends, news and events every month.

So what's in this issue?

I wrote about KamKam and their amazingly adorable Dressed Up Furniture collection, Marcel Wanders' sexy light Sky Garden that I first saw in an event at Moss with Sam (more details on that in my next NY Diaries post), Pantone picking Honeysuckle as the color of 2011, online shelter and lifestyle magazines like Lonny, Rue, Matchbook and High Gloss (have you checked it out? I love how colorful it is!). In the bottom you can see a list of iPhone and iPad apps for the design savvy, including Color Snap, iHandy tool, Kelly Hoppen and the intriguing Wallpaper and Hermes collaboration, which just won't work on my iPad...

Oh, almost forgot! My item on One Kings Lane made it to the "it list" pages.

If you happen to be in the area and read Hebrew, I recommend you pick Go Style Magazine. Not just because I'm in it, but because they have done a magnificent job turning it from a fashion and gossip publication (which I adored for the witty writing) to a wonderful sophisticated lifestyle magazine. I'm really proud of them!

Now, I'm dying to know- what do you think?

mind games

 

Dusk.

Isn't it magical? I took this picture just moments before reading Lisa's post on the same subject. As always, a worthwhile read.

I handed in the book I've been translating since July, so I'm taking the rest of the day off to celebrate the remains of the holiday and maybe (dare I say it?) rest a little.

Come back later for another installation of cube into home, this time colorful and bursting with inspiration.

{image photography by Chedva K for Belly's Button}

I want my mojo back!

{All images are from the Prada lookbook, courtesy of TLO- Poject Rungay}

The last weeks have been hard on my sewing, and creativity in general. The work heaped on my (metaphorical) desk, along with the unbearable heat and humidity and Chanoch's new day school, which ends hours earlier than his previous school - all those aren't easy on me. You wouldn't believe the number of unfinished projects I have going on, and on top of that - I have one more dream waiting to be realized, but that too shall wait till I have time to sit, sketch and make it a reality (sorry for being vague; I'm not trying to be mysterious, not at all.)

I also have almost nothing to wear, and my clothing-shopping mojo (if such a thing, indeed, exists) has flown out the window as well, while all I want to sew (if I had the time) is either trench coats and wool pencil skirts or flowing chiffon/charmeuse silk evening wear (which I don't have where to wear to).

Thankfully, my workout mojo has gained from the loss of all others, and the gym has been seeing my face (and my thighs) a lot lately. A good thing, considering the amounts of cooking that were going on here this passing week.

So, this AM, I'll just indulge in some Prada prettiness, and some much-needed Glee kitch to blow the Monday Blues far, far away, and hopefully bring back my mojo, at least my work mojo, which  is the most urgent right now.

 

Have a good one, everybody!

 

staying stationary: notebook roundup

If you follow me on Twitter you may know I've started working on a new, extremely exciting book (which name I cannot share, sadly, because it will rock your socks when you get to know). By working I mean translating. When I translate a book there are many choices I make which might not seem like the obvious choice to the editor/proofreader. That's why I started to keep notes in an actual notebook. That way I can also remember my own reasons when I edit myself for the umpteenth time plus I get a real, hard copy keepsake from each book I translated, that also shows all the sweat I've shed over it (unlike the clean and sterile copies I get of the translation). Problem is, Hello Kitty notebooks don't display well in a gentlemen-only-club inspired office (yeah, well, I never promised to be consistent).

So I single-handedly surfed the cruel interwebz in order to find a notebook that won't put me to shame. yet still be practical. I must admit I've finished this one cruise very much disappointed, from these reasons:

• I haven't found Zebra-print notebooks (and if you'd follow my twitter you'd have known I'm currently zeeb-crazed.)
• The prices are, mostly, insane.
• The best choice, it seems, is still moleskine- which I knew well before this here search, so what have I done here, really?

Anyway, here are my humble findings, a-la Domino:

{clockwise, starting from top left: kate spade notepad 12$; mateo ilasco 13$; floppy notebook, smythson; Odenbach set of 3 notebooks, kate's paperie 18.95$; moleskine 5.95$; make it happen notebook, smythson; the luckiest girl, coverstories on etsy.}

Also, somehow left out:

{striped spectrum journal, anthro 28$}

What about the pens, you ask? Well, I could have drooled over fancy pens just to be frustrated by their prices, but I know myself well enough to state that I would have still returned to my faithful ol' pilot 0.30 (preferably in purple)- so what's the point?

Do you ever scribble in a notebook anymore (and I don't mean the digital kind)? Do you draw, do you write, do you fly a kite (kidding...)? Doesn't writing by hand hurt your fingers now that you are accustomed to typing? (it hurts mine)

- - - - -

Two notification, if you shall:

• I'm leaving on sort-of-a-vacation (the definition is fluid, as I'll be working all the time and checking on the apartment at least once a day, but let's leave it at that) and I've got quite the line-up of guest bloggers for you! There will also be a few pre-scheduled posts by me, so keep an eye on the blog.
• The giveaway ends tonight, enter it while you can because I'll be closing the comments and drawing the winner.

Have a great week, friends.

of text, tiles and textile

Oof, what a week it has been. Actually great, but oh-so-exhausting. The reason it's been so exhausting is that my week started with a 14-hours work trip to the north of Israel (I live near Tel Aviv, which is right in the middle), where I escorted an executive from the US to her company's factory as an interpretor. Now, usually I do translation, not interpretations, which means I translate written material, and in my case it's normally - and preferably - literature. I love my job very much and can't really picture myself doing anything else (except, maybe, designing and sewing full time). Having said that, that random job I've been on in Monday turned out to be one of the most wonderful, inspiring and interesting experiences in my years as a translator. Weirdly, I can thank my involvement with sewing world for that.

Turns out that factory we were to visit was actually a clothes factory which caters to many of America's leading brands (I'm not allowed to say more than that [now I feel so important]). Going into the knitting workshop, where they manufacture all the knit fabrics was truly fascinating. Seeing those crazy, noise-bombarding knitting machines spinning was nothing short of hypnotizing. The cutting was also neat to watch. But what made this experience so special was walking into the sewing workshop: dozens and dozens of sewing machines, cover stitch machines and sergers - each with a devoted seamstress nearby, sewing, serging, testing the fabric. And they were all SMILING. I tell you, I felt like I was Lucy, pushing a few plain coats in a closet and discovering the magical realm of Narnia.

14 hours later, exhausted but inspired, it struck me how similar sewing and translating are at times. It's something that's been on my mind since I started sewing, and even more so since I found Gertie's blog, who also works in the publishing industry. You can never sew or translate if you're a mistake-o-phobic, because you simply won't stand the pressure. To sew -or translate- you need to be willing to rip rebellious seams, adjust patterns and so on, literally or figuratively. Alas, to sew or to translate properly you must be enough of a perfectionist control freak to then regard your work as unfinished until you have smoothed all bumps, gone over your piece of text/ile again and again until it seems practically seamless and even then, for most translators/sewistas I know, you will always see something wrong with the outcome even if people stop you in the street to praise your masterpiece or publish an admiring critique of your translation in the newspaper.

So - text, textiles - that's okay, but where do the tiles figure in? Oh, that's pretty simple: they don't. They just sneaked in this week, along with all other things regarding our new apartment's decorating. We are hoping to move there in a month or so, and so of course everything with tiles, carpenters etc is going nuts. I'm sure it will be alright - after all, if I can rip seams and edit a translation I'm practically SuperGirl, ain't I?

(Candle, flower, books and Picnik tricks brought to you by a very sleepy me)