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Ok this has nothing to do with gardens ...but hey! I am half french and listened to Edith Piaf throughout my childhood : so here is an invitation to celebrate the success of Marion Cotillard's performance in La Mome and the Oscar she brings home!
Vive Piaf! Sublime Marion!
I have selected a few songs. Enjoy whilst you read on! Right at the end an interview of Madame Piaf herself.
And an interview ....
BBQ's are still quite surprising ugly...give or take a few innovative designs. I found this model quite refreshing. I am sure a bit of clever planning can spare you the site of the gaz tank!
Link here
Domani are probably amongst the first brands to seriously rethink outdoor designs.
Their latest stone shaped day bed is brilliant and a demonstration of their innovative ideas.
(I pinched the 3 additional photos in my extended post from a french site..
I apologise to them as I lost track of their URL!)
These fig shaped inflatable lanterns are perhaps a bit childish but I feel they add a poetic feel to any outdoor space now that its freezing outdoors !
Link here 
Neiman Marcus offer the commercial version of Dutch sculptor and designer Dré Wapenaar's internationally famed coolest architectural tents.
To splash the bonus : link here
I received a mail from Food Map design to tell me about themselves. They are an emerging multi-disciplinary design firm committed
to reconnecting residential space and food cultivation.I really liked their new container...
LINK here
I am a firm believer that edible gardens are the only thing that really will make sense in the coming years..and for different reasons.
For some it will be about gaining gourmet chic creds from home grown food, others will come to it by desire to reconnect to a natural instinct... whilst many will do it to sustain themselves.
Whatever the reason, and however limited the space.
"Grow your own fruit, vegetables and herbs in the modern and green Food Map container. We created a product that enables people with limited outdoor space to grow food at home without having to compromise on design. The container is made from nontoxic High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), which contains post-industrial reused material. The frame is 40-100% recycled steel. The product is manufactured in Los Angeles County and is 100% recyclable. Home-grown foods reduce the need to buy heavily-traveled produce from Supermarkets. The container comes in two sizes: the larger raised container allows for gardening while standing; while the smaller one is great for kids and smaller scale settings. The container has rubber casters for mobility as weather and sunlight conditions change. Food Map design is an emerging multi-disciplinary design firm committed to reconnecting residential space and food cultivation
I love this idea I read about in the online edition of the NY Times:
'Among contemporary art collectors — a world in which more is more these days — having your own private, architect-designed art gallery isn’t new. But hiding it in the side of a mountain is.'
That is what their example is about but no doubt Designers will find the idea attractive for the best properties just in time for bonus time!
Bade Stageberg Cox’s design for the Stones’ art cave includes two portals framed in Cor-Ten steel; the entrance portal is shown here. In the foreground is part of the landscape, which was designed by Tom Leader Studio.
Norman and Norah Stone — San Francisco collectors whose well-known holdings encompass work by artists from Donald Judd and Richard Serra to Robert Gober and Mike Kelley, as well as a growing collection of work by younger artists like Keith Tyson — found themselves with a lot of art and no place to show it all, especially the larger pieces, like Vito Acconci’s “Adjustable Wall Bra.” (Their house in San Francisco was already loaded with art.) Their 17-acre weekend place in the Napa Valley offered plenty of land, but the Stones didn’t want a big building that would disturb the harmony of what was already on the property, including a surprisingly modest 1887 farmhouse (filled with art, of course), a vineyard, a stand of redwood trees, a sculpture by Cady Noland and a striking pool and pavilion that was a collaboration between the artist James Turrell, the architect Jim Jennings and Tom Leader, who designed the landscape for the property. The solution to this problem came, fittingly enough, from the wine business. The Stones had seen a number of their friends’ and neighbors’ wine caves, which are all the rage right now, and when they looked at the hillside on their own land, Norah recalled, “we thought, Art cave.” Thus the couple got a building big enough to show their art, but one so cleverly concealed that you hardly know it’s there.
Consistent with their interest in lesser-known young artists, the Stones hired three young New York architects — Tim Bade, Jane Stageberg and Martin Cox, of Bade Stageberg Cox — on the recommendation of Thea Westreich, who has been the Stones’ art adviser for 17 years. (Westreich’s husband and business partner, Ethan Wagner, coined the name “Stonescape” to describe the entire property.) Westreich had known Cox in particular for some time and said that “he was extremely sensitive to art and to volume — and that’s what the cave is.” Hiring a star architect might have been easy, but the results might not have been so friendly to the art. The Stones, explains Westreich, “felt the collection would distinguish the project, not the other way around.”
As it turned out, the architecture of the cave is plenty distinguished — it’s a cool and elegantly proportioned backdrop for the art, but it’s powerful in its own right. Two understated portals, flanked by panels of Cor-Ten steel that will rust to near-invisibility in the landscape, lead, through smaller galleries, into (and out of) the 5,750-square-foot cave’s main space, which is 114 feet long, 27 feet wide and 23 feet high. A series of “pockets” were carved into the barrel vault of the ceiling to conceal fixtures that subtly wash the walls and artworks with an even light. (Renfro Design Group was the lighting consultant.)
As Bade points out, the cave — a primitive form of shelter — was created using sophisticated computer technology. After it was excavated, the cave was surveyed with laser equipment, and the survey was presented to the architects as a three-dimensional digital file, which was then used to fine-tune the design.
The cave is not open to the public, but its exhibitions will change to reflect the Stones’ evolving collections. Although this was hardly a modest undertaking, the results are refreshingly unostentatious. As Westreich said of her clients, “They’re not your typical collectors, so why would they build a typical monument to themselves?”
As greeting cards start arriving, the seasonal festive spirit becomes more real each day.I love these outdoor torches by Mestre. I found them at Sabz - who do international deliveries. At 394 euros a piece they make a great gift.
Link here
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