The Country Bunny, a childhood favourite

My friend Jeanne Byington who runs a PR firm in New York, JM Byington & Associates, has a blog of her own called The Importance of Earnest Service (http://blog.jmbyington.com/). On 1 May, she had a post about the Children's Books Awards and wanted to know about our own favourites. So, I, of course, commented on some of my favourites and now thought I'd post the first of many on my own site.

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes as told to Jennifer by Du Bose Heyward, Pictures by Marjorie Hack was first printed in 1939 by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston.

It is the delightful tale about how a plain country bunny competes with the big Jack Rabbits to be one of the 5 Easter Bunnies (which I did not realise until now) to deliver Easter eggs around the world. While it is delightfully illustrated and will captivate it's listeners, it also offers a message to our youngest readers (and even those reading it) that just because you may be a plain country bunny, and not run as fast as the big Jack Rabbits in order to succeed on your mission in life, you also need to be kind and wise and even brave. You can buy The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes on Amazon, http://www.amazon.co.uk/.

This is a message not only appropriate for children to hear at Easter time. It is something we should all be keeping in mind day by day. Especially with the global recession. Many of us feel particularly vulnerable and it is easy to get off track and freaked out. It is time to reach out to others, your neighbours, friends and family to make sure they are doing okay and even if it means you give them the opportunity just to have a chat with them to vent frustrations and fear. Let them. We all need to stick together and reach out to others to help us all get through these unnerving times. It's time for us all to be a little bit kinder, wiser and even braver!

That's my little message for the day.

Now onto some other favourite things. You've heard me mention my artistic mother throughout this blog and so I just wanted to show you the two cards we received from her for Easter this year. I'll be doing a bigger post about her in the future - well I could do several as she continues to inspire me with her amazing artistic talents and wonderful outlook on life.

The cards we received this year were a pair of spotted eggs and this delightful striped and dotted bunny.

While I continue to push her to get her site up and running properly, you can see a tiny glimpse of her talent on her website: Jilly Walsh, http://jillywalsh.com/. Email her and tell her you want to see more!!!!

Clodagh launches new outdoor fabric collection

I was delighted to hear recently that the renowned architect and interior designer, Clodagh has teamed up with Perennial Outdoor Fabrics. Her collection has ten designs inspired, as one would expect, from nature. Madagascar, displays a whimsical sea turtle design, It Takes a Village, depicts a primitive community of simple huts, Kilimanjaro has the textured peaks of the mountain in a zig zag jacquard, Amazed is reminiscent of a tribal shiled, Kuba takes its inspiration from authentic Kuba cloth, Katanga's "X" motif represents the early currency used in the African country of the same name and Mancala takes inspiration from an African game played with seeds. A group of textured fabrics including Raffia, Pygmy Stripe and Zulu Stripe can be mixed in to complement the woven Jacquards.

Perennial Outdoor Fabrics (http://www.perennialsfabrics.com/) resist soil, water (good for all our rain), UV radiation, tearing and abrasion plus they come with a 3 year warranty against fading (not that we'd have that issue so much here in Ireland) however, the thing is they are really great fabrics and already come in a fantastic range of colours and designs and now Clodagh's collection just gives us all that much more choice.

Clodagh was born in Ireland and at the age of 17 dropped her surname when she set up her own company. Since then she has been a constant force in the design world. Throughout her distinguished professional career she has travelled to over 90 countries around the world. Her aesthetic is strongly influenced by her adventuresome spirit and she's always been a bit advocate for the "green movement".

For 25 years, she's called New York home and in a 12,000 square foot studio in Noho, she oversees three distinct divisions of her business. Clodagh Signature - the product design group for all her licensees; Clodagh Collection, an on site showroom highlighting Clodagh along with carefully edited home furnishings and accessories from around the world and Clodagh Design, her architectural and interior design practice.

Her latest book, Your Home Your Sanctuary is was published in 2008 by Rizzoli and gives plenty of ideas,using her aesthetic and design philosophy for creating your own sanctuary at home.

To see more of her work, log onto http://www.clodagh.com/

Magnificent Mayo

Croagh Patrick from a distance(any pink is due to faulty camera!)

We finally took a two night getaway to see another part of the country and headed up to Castlebar, Co. Mayo. The hotel was nothing to blog about, so I won't but I'm always a sucker for fantastic views and I certainly got those. I was intrigued to see Croagh Patrick because I'd read quite a bit about the dedicated pilgrimages to the top, especially shoeless and thankfully, it did not disappoint and emerged out of the mist on our first evening as we drove into Westport for dinner.

(view from base of Croagh Patrick)
On the second day we headed to another holy spot, Knock. We visited the beautiful chapel build to keep the memory of the famous apparition alive. It was beautiful, calming and powerful. Quite an industry of religious artifacts have sprung up in the shops nearby so we too stopped in to buy bottles for Holy water and then headed back to collect it to bring home. For more on Knock, http://www.knock-shrine.ie/.

From Knock we headed to the Museum of Country Life, which has been built in a wonderful modern complex on the side of a hill. It goes down several floors with a wide array of interesting displays on early life in Ireland. They are in impeccable condition and open so you can look closely at them without the hindrance of glass. There's a great cafe there and wonderful gift shop so it was the perfect refuge from the downpour outside. The National Museum of Ireland - Country Life; http://www.museum.ie/.

We took the long road home back to Nenagh which took us through the most unbelievable scenery I've seen since coming here. It was a perfect day and at times we were the only car on the road, sheep our only companions. A perfect slice of heaven if you ask me!

To find out more about things to do and accommodation in the Mayo area (or throughout Ireland) - log onto http://www.discoverireland.ie/.

Salon Internazionale de Mobile de Milan

While I have always wanted to go to the Salon Internazionale de Mobile de Milan (the Milan Furniture Fair), I have yet been able to. So, this year I got British product designer, Damian Evans to give me an update on the April show. Damian designs household products for leading brands around the world. His signature style is simple, elegant and effective, based on the belief that products should be useful, practical and fit their purpose.

(new Herb Chopper for Joseph Joseph)
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, Damian’s career in product design started with Terence Conran, developing products for Habitat, BHS, Concorde Lighting and Psion.

He started his own business in 2000 with The Body Shop, Marks and Spencer, Bisque Radiators, Philippi Germany, Gruppo Confalionori Italy, Traidcraft, JosephJoseph and Bliss Home amongst his clients.

The Index Chopping Boards designed by Damian for JosephJoseph won 2008 Gift of the Year in the UK, Australia and Japan and the Housewares Industry Cutting Edge Award. His products sell worldwide and are stocked at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

(the Index Chopping boards)

NenaghGal: Tell me how the show was this year?

DE:Having not been to the Salone since 2007 it seemed quite a jump from what I saw last time.The most telling image was of far fewer people at the main fair ground than I remember which may have something to do with the Crunch or as the Italians like to call it “The Crisis”. Everywhere around Milan were posters for different political parties campaigning as to how they would solve the Crisis.

NenaghGal: Despite "The Crisis", did you see some interesting things?

DE:Magis had a number of new and always surprising and well thought through designs. Jasper Morrison’s Bistro family reflected his professed disinterest in new world shattering designs. I am not sure how much I liked these. The use of a translucent seat and back referencing the traditional woven sections of classic Bistro chairs seemed like too much of a cheap ironic joke and yet they do grow on one.

(Bistro chairs)

Plank were showing Konstantin Gricic’s Monza chair which took him and Plank back to the companies wood based roots combining with a plastic top section. I loved this chair. While not earth shattering in it’s aesthetics or materials it was a well considered and beautiful chair that used the plastic to add a zing of colour that referenced Scandinavian chair design.

The Campana Brothers Cipria sofa for Edra came across as a resting Honey Monster from the UK cereal adds.

Front had a number of pieces on show this year. I wonder whether such visual jokes will last for long and are they relivant where longevity is perhaps a more key design imperative at the moment. The Softwood chair for Moroso seemed to be a one hit wonder. I much preferred their chess table for Moooi that used the chess squares to dictate the proportions and structure of the piece.

Moroso did have some great pieces and really expressed the feel for ethnicity and recycling that pervaded many parts of the show. Tord Bootjen’s Flower table suggested a kind of “Camping chic”. No real heavy industrial processes were used other than cutting and drilling and bolting what looked like bought in aluminium extrusions and tubing. It was brave piece of work and very challenging. Diesel’s Radio1_Razza pieces also played with the idea of found objects and recycling, while Tord Bootjen’s large ethnic chair woven with bright nylon rope picked up on the all pervading ethnic feel of the Moroso showroom in Milan itself.

Diesel's Radio1-Razzo pieces

(Tord Bootjen ethnic chair)

I really liked the Bouroullec brothers “Quilt” sofa’s and arm chairs for Established and Son’s and had me thinking of the Thing out of the Fantastic Four.

NenaghGal: And what about lighting?

DE:Euroluce was happening this year though I found little at the Fairground which got me excited. Perhaps I was too tired out by the time I got to this section. Patricia Urquiola’s new stamped metal lamps for Flos illustrated a slight Brutalism which seemed to exist in the show.

(Patricia Urquiola)

Ross Lovegrove’s Cosmic Leaf series left me rather cold. Having a plastic leaf hanging from a spot light felt like a bit of a cop out.

Zona Tortona was besieged on the Saturday. It took me 15 minutes to leave over the narrow railway bridge that acts as the conduit to this part of town. Tweelink offered some beautiful chandeliers made from fishing floats. I’Radium displayed plywood radiators that worked incredibly well and suggested real opportunities for heaters more attuned to an interior.
(Tweelink's "fishing lure" chandelier)
Brian Sironi was showing a award winning LED lamp that switched off when swung round to the wall. Simple and effective.

Moooi knocked my socks off. The Raimond lights by the designer of the same name were superb. A perfect balance of technology and elegance and like the Monza chair I wish I had designed them.

I also found a Japanese student in the Basement who had done some very pretty porcelain lamps that in a more hand crafted manner offered the same kind of delicacy as the Raimond lights.

In wandering round the city itself I found the new Hope lamps for LucePlan by Francisco Gomex and Paolo Rizzatto that were one of my favourite products of the whole show. Again some subtle technology (Freznel lenses) used to create a sparkling and decorative lamp. This lamp has an organic and hyper-nature feel to it. It is almost the other end of the same spectrum as the ethnic woven pieces round the corner at the Moroso showroom. I liked the fact that a great deal was done with (in terms of the volume of the lamp) a small amount of material to create a subtle and beautiful product.

NenaghGal: Thanks for the fantastic run through the show and all the great photographs you provided for my blog!

Note: In Ireland, Brown Thomas and Arnott's carry Damian's Joseph Joseph products such as the herb chopper, Index boards and an adjustable rolling pin.

To see more of Damian's products or to contact him, he can be reached through his business Element Design in London. http://www.element-design.com/.

Simple Little Ideas

(Could't resist taking this, vine tomatoes on a beautiful Fresia plate, again designed by my mother on a chair upholstered in a classic ticking stripe from the Williamsburg collection from Waverly - simplicity at it's best!)

There are loads of simple ways to make your home feel more special whether it's bringing in a bouquet of flowers or giving an old piece of furniture a new lease on life.

1. Buy fresh flowers - I get mine at The Country Market in Nenagh, held on Friday mornings (in the institute on Friar Street). They have plenty of bunches picked that morning from local gardens and tables full of local organic chicken, quiches, cakes, buns, jams and more. For €3 a bunch, it's an economical and beautiful way to give your home a little life. I usually pick up two bunches. One becomes the focal point on my kitchen table and the other gets divided into smaller arrangements for my daughters room and our master bedroom.

(Flowers on my kitchen table)

2. Reconsider second hand furniture - Recycling old pieces of furniture is truly in vogue these days. Don't shy away for buying an old table at a charity or second hand shop and don't forget the dump (yes, the dump) may even have some hidden treasures waiting for you. In New York, where I lived for 15 years, "dumpster diving" was an art form. One of my best finds, that moved to each new apartment with me, was a long rectangular solid wood coffee table. Who ever had it last had painted it cream but the underside was black and they didn't even bother to paint the side that must have been against the wall. In my apartments it got a new lease on life with a fresh coat of white paint. It was ideal for displaying my collections of books or becoming a table for serving nibbles when friends stopped by.

In my daughter's room in Nenagh, an old bureau found at the dump back in the US got a new lease on life when my mother gave it her artistic touch and repainted it and added her own design. To me it has so much more charm than going out and buying a new piece. It has lovely simple details and now re-painted is a unique piece specially designed for my daughter.

3. Easy Artwork - buying artwork can be a hefty investment so I'm a big fan of great posters. The one of Irish wildlife above my daughter's bureau we picked up in the gift show at Birr Castle. Back in my hometown in Connecticut, they have a big fair called The Woodstock Fair the first weekend in September (Labour Day Weekend) and this poster was created to memorialize the fair in 2004. Of course, displaying your children's artwork is another great way to give your home a personal look. Put in a nice frame it looks professional and will make your children feel so proud.

What's coming up next week.....................

Next week I'll have a great interview with British product designer Damian Evans who talks to me about his recent trip to the Salon de Mobile (the furniture show in Milan, Italy) and I'll also be talking to Susan Mulvihill of Olio & Farina in Limerick.