the Babble’s first giveaway

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today is a special day for Architecture Babble because I am hosting my first ever reader giveaway! A few weeks ago I was contacted by a cool company that sells lots of fabulous stuff, everything from kids bedding to swanky modern furniture. Lately, I’ve been checking out the selection of crib sheets and retro/modern nursery furniture. They’ve got some pretty great stuff, like the Eames rocker.

The generous folks at the CSN stores (who own cool sites like AllModern.com and AllChildrensFurniture.com) have offered one of my lucky readers a chance to sample one of their products. I chose three pillows from AllModern.com, and all you have to do is leave a comment.

(from L to R: Zig-Zag pillow from Twinkle Living, Green Chrysanthemums pillow from Thomas Paul, and Juniper Square pillow from Unison)

I'm psyched about these options and would love to win any one of them. Sadly, I cannot enter this giveaway, but YOU CAN!

Here’s how to enter to win your choice of the above pillows: -Leave a comment on this post telling me which pillow you like best and where or how you will use it. -Contest will be open until 8 pm on Thursday, March 11, 2010. -I'll randomly select a winner (using a random number generator) and announce it on the blog on Thursday evening. -Contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only (sorry to my international readers).

Thanks for reading and good luck!

my Etsy find

Last week I was browsing on Etsy (and thinking why don’t I buy everything from Etsy?) and caved with this purchase.

(Click for source)

It arrived yesterday and I’m pretty excited about it. This vintage-style map of North America is paired with a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly and I plan for it to hang in (drumroll please) our Nursery! Yes, I’m making the official blog announcement that we are expecting our first child in July. We are blissful and happy, and hopefully my condition explains the sporadic nature of the blog these past few months. We’re beginning to figure out a nursery design (in the room that is currently an office/guest room), so plan to see upcoming posts on that front. I’m tending towards bolder colors as opposed to pastels, and we aren’t finding out the sex of our little one until the big day, so that is a fun, creative challenge as well.

Please come back tomorrow- I’ll have another (not quite as) exciting announcement and a first for the Babble.

the blueprint chair

Is it crazy that I want this chair just because it's called the blueprint chair? Well, that and it's on sale. I know exactly which over-sized pleather office chair this can replace (sorry, Dr. Jay). Find it at CB2.com

Miami Vacay

We returned Tuesday from a short but well worth it trip to Miami over the weekend.  Rudy is helping me unpack.

That fur to the right of him is his pelt.  Don’t ask.

We were able to get some much-needed sunshine, eat Cuban food (thanks Amy and Max!), swim, fish, and be inspired by architecture.

Here are a few of the photos I took in the Art Deco District on Sunday morning.  Tip for all you vacation photographers: Sunday morning is the best time to capture a city because there are fewer people and less traffic, and if you time it right you can get great light.  We probably should have gotten up a little earlier for the best light in a sunny city like Miami, but hey, we were on vacation.

This next one might be my favorite of the old hotels.

Here’s where we stayed. 

Just kidding.  We didn’t stay there.  But we drooled over this strip of hotels from the beach.

I absolutely loved this one (above).  Isn’t that little balcony amazing?  It’s the Ritz-Carlton, so I tried not to get too attached.

Just that morning I was thinking how much I like terrazzo flooring, and lo and behold we came across this:

That’s not your average terrazzo, friends.  The embedded stones are huge.  Here’s a scale photo with my sandy foot in it.  Keep in mind I have freakishly large feet.

These steps are gorgeous and belong to the Hotel Gansevoort (designed by the Stephen B. Jacobs Group) which we checked out in search of a restroom.   We were directed to their coffee bar, Cafe Bustelo, which turned out to be A-mazing.

Rows and rows of their coffee line the walls to the tall ceiling.

 

It is beautifully designed, and great for people-watching. 

Just across the street (Collins Road) is the property I’d be interested in purchasing and redeeming:

 

Anyone want to go in on an investment property?   This one’s a winner: prime location and great mid-century bones.

One last architecture photo from the trip.

That’s a parking garage.  Isn’t it astoundingly cool?

Nothing  like a trip to a new city to gain some inspiration.  Miss you already, Miami.