World's most expensive square footage

While I think I'll save my pennies for a down payment on a house I might actually be able to wiggle my toes in, I can't help but marvel at the ingenuity and artistry behind these little "dream houses" by Philippe Tournaire. And there's a nice story behind them:

Les premières bagues architecture furent découvertes pendant l’ère Mérovingienne (VIème siècle après Jésus Christ).Ces bagues ont pour la plupart été retrouvées en Gaule, enfouies dans les tombes de femmes mérovingiennes appartenant à la haute aristocratie. On appelait ces bagues « bagues de la foi ».
Au XVIème et XVIIème siècle, on retrouva également des alliances juives datant du Moyen Age, ornées d’un petit édifice qui symbolise à la fois la nouvelle maison du couple et le temple de Jérusalem détruit.

The first architectural rings were discovered dating to the Merovingian period (6th century A.D.). These rings were primarily found in Gaul, buried in the tombs of Merovingian women belonging to the high aristocracy. These rings were called "bagues de la foi" (or "faith rings").
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Jewish wedding rings were also found dating from the Middle Ages, decorated with a small building that symbolized both the couple's new home and the destroyed temple in Jerusalem.

View the "fortified village", "log cabin" (a la Aspen), "monastery", "New York" and more here.

I need one of these

Don't we all?

"Hug" Salt & Pepper shakers from Soutbank Centre.

The Gnawa Festival may have just ended (*sigh*) but art continues to adorn the beautiful seaside city of Essaouira. Trolling through Flickr, I found the street graffiti art of Christian Guemy (a.k.a. C215), a French painter who travels the world adorning the streets of Delhi, Rome, Sao Paulo or Brooklyn.

S.A.S. : Why faces?
C215 : "Faces reflect the personnality, you can even read a full life on a marked face. I guess that a lot people never meet tramps because they don’t pay attention to them. They have been fascinating me for a long time. You have to be very courageous to accept such a tough life. I paint in the streets people really belonging to the streets: tramps, but also beggars, street orphans from the poorest countries. This is a stencil tradition by the way."



S.A.S. : Saw some stencils from New Delhi – amazing stuff. Do you work with different styles and themes in different countries?
C215 : "Context is the most important thing in street art. The only thing I never change is my logo. There should be a stencil for each situation. Reproduce the same stencil everywhere should be boring, no?"

-excerpt from an interview with Street Art Stockholm.

Here I've clipped several of his works in Essouira. The full set is here.

Ferka 16 - bags with poetry

Farka 16 branches out from their line of t-shirts into bags. Still combining Arabic poetry with her bold graphic designs, Jacqueline Bejani has brought out this line of 4 different eye-catching totes that are still simple enough to carry groceries in.

And with the low Euro right now, these bags are a pretty steal for those of you carrying dollars!

Lalla Links

The Style Files features a beautiful, laid-back summer villa in Ibiza.

Image courtesy The Style Files.

...love Maegan does a kaftan roundup and another awesome DIY statement necklace.


Iran is a nation of poets. Don't believe me? Check out these original bumper "stickers".

'In the name of love, man's most beautiful mistake.'

Image courtesy Payvand.com.

And adding to my reasons to give daily thanks for the existence of Creative Roots, a post on the first printing press in the Middle East*. (Hint: think cedars...)


*Originally posted at 29 Letters.

Image courtesy Creative Roots & 29 Letters.

Global Civic Pride

From Astana to Vilnius, passing through Hradec Králové, CitID is a global design project for the creation of city "identity" through font and graphics. Their goal is to have representations from every country in the world (and more ambitiously, every city).

"A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again."
-Margaret Mead

Here're a few of my fav designs.

Naples

Florence

Bordeaux

Source: The always surprising Creative Roots

I heart people

This must be one of the most memorable proposals ever.

Good thing she said yes!

(P.S. I'll resume posting regularly in a few days, so come back real soon now, ya'll hear?)