Furniture Reporter

*crawls out from under the mountain of work*

*dusts off*

*clears throat*

Hello, everyone! I’ve been one busy girl! Fox Obviate and I have opened a store for tiny avatars called Tiny TAMA and we’ve been working day and night to get things ready. I also had the official opening of DAZ Island with the launch of Hexagon 2.5 (which has company implemented SCULPTIE support, yay!) and in RL, am doing a job for Warner Bros. Consumer Products. How many hours in a day did someone say there were?

We are specializing in tinies at these stores because it’s just too cool to be a tiny! They are, as we are learning, a heck of a lot of fun to design for. There is the need to tailor things for the different avatars, much more so than even with humans. The fox and some others are similar, but can vary slightly to a lot through the neck and head.

Tiny TAMA has a great line of asian-styled furniture (currently, the 155 series is in the stores) and a fantastic line of tiny clothing…samurais and hakamas. I am presently in Modo and Hex, modeling sculpted kimonos and several other things. There will be stone pathways, large (by bonsai standards) bonsai trees, meditation platforms and gazebos and many other things as we get them done, textured and make them available to you.

I hate SL groups, don’t you? As an artist, builder and business, my groups racked up early. So I went seeking a better solution and found it in Zanara Zenovka’s Mailbox System with Subscription ability. When you come to the store, you will see what looks like a little chinese take out box with two scultped eggrolls. These are, what else, our EGGROLLMENT. You click on the greenie one to sign up (and there’s a handsome welcome gift). Click the reddish one if you really and truly want to leave us (whimper). Once on the list, I will send out newsletters to update you on what’s new at Tiny TAMA. The newsletter even comes in a beautiful light sculpture.

We do hope you will stop by to see us and make sure you pan out with your camera to see the huge maneki neko atop the store and the chinese takeout box entrance.

~namaste and elfa

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During my early days browsing in the old town, the warehouse was a general store, though quite what went on deep in its bowels, I never knew. (The shop occupied only the front portion). Eventually it was sold on, and Jack the Lad came into the picture, opening more and more of it to the public, stuffing acres of it with antiques of every shape and size. Those were the balmy days of the warehouse as a Mecca for antique lovers, but it was not long before the ogre of repro reared its ugly head… but this is not a history of the warehouse as antiques emporium.

Sufffice it to say that, in the early days I was a regular visitor (for instance, buying chairs which I then turned against, or which turned against me – see number 29 in this series) and invariably trying and failing to get the better of Jack. I’m not quite sure who I would rate among all my dealer acquaintances as top dog, for not only is their merchandise different, but their clientel and even their aims. But I have to say that in that august pantheon, Jack would certainly merit a place. I’m not sure whether he has any taste – he not only would, but does, sell practically anything. If he has no taste, he makes up for it by having an extraordinary knack for knowing what will sell. And by having no taste, his radar is not jammed by the kind of considerations which others have to struggle against: liking something, only to find that there are no customers for it. In a sense, I feel as though the best dealers / retailers are those who are devoid of sentimentality, but operate only on the basis of what is saleable. Certainly, all the successful ones must have the ability to function on this basis. Most claim, probably with justification, that you do best only when you sell what you yourself like. I’m sure this must have a lot of truth in it - but does that mean that Jack likes everything? At all events, Jack is a character, and that excuses a great deal – and he if is a pirate, he is the kind who will offer you a drink and engage you in pleasant banter before inviting you to walk the plank! 

Anyhow, here are the images of the subject of this post, which is a bog standard early eighteenth century English oak coffer. I had a much more intricately carved one – again from Jack’s – but when I acquired the patchwork which you see in one of the images, patchwork fought coffer, so I ended up trading in the latter and getting the present one, which has the merit of being plain, and not clashing. I love it, but I miss the other, which was a bit special. I had no camera at the time, so have no photo of it.

I imagine that I am not alone in having only one piece of antique furniture of this age. There are lots of these coffers about, and one which has nothing special about it can be picked up for £300-400. I don’t believe there is any other item of a similar age available at this price. Of course, really fine examples of these coffers will fetch anything up to £1200, even down here (God knows what they cost in Chelsea). I would love to have Georgian furniture, or even earlier, but on my budget that is not a serious option. Anyhow, you can see from the close-ups that a piece this age aquires a certain something that a Victorian piece, for example, cannot match. Enjoy!

Like many New Yorkers, I live with room mates. For most people living with room mates, the reason is financial. Despite all the room mate horror-stories I’ve heard and experienced, room mates can come in handy. Personally, I live with two wonderful guys. They’re like the big brothers I never had. Granted, I’m only going to be with them for two more days, but they’ve taken care of the random bugs that freak me out, and they’re tall, so whenever I needed a light bulb changed, they’d come to my rescue. The down-side of living with room mates is that you’re in a constant compromise over space and time. There just isn’t enough of either. Many people sacrifice the luxury of having a living room in order to have an extra bedroom, and there’s never enough cabinet space in the kitchen or bathroom. Traffic-jams in the bathroom in the morning are never pleasant when everyone is trying to get out the door.

One solution that I’ve found for these issues is multiple-purpose furniture. When I had my little purple dresser, it doubled as a TV-stand. In the mornings, my desk sometimes doubles as a vanity, and I’ve used my bedside table as a dining table for two by using floor pillows and covering it with a simple linen tablecloth.

Here are some furniture pieces that can also serve multiple purposes. Some of these are a little pricey, but when you consider their dual-functionality, the costs really do even out.

West Elm’s Narrow-Leg Vanity. The beveled mirror folds down, concealing storage space inside the vanity. Once the mirror is down, the vanity can become a desk! Also features two pull-out drawers.

Pottery Barn’s Basic Sleeper Sofa. The ultimate piece of furniture to have if there’s no guest room, and your visitors will get a good night’s sleep too. They’re not paying the hefty hotel prices, and they’re not camped on the floor in a sleeping bag. When it’s not a bed, it’s a sofa!

Crate and Barrel’s Loop Bench. Put it at the end of the bed to store out-of-season clothes or winter blankets. Doubles as extra seating for parties! Top it with decorative pillows or a long colorful cushion.

Crate and Barrel’s Sloane Leaning Desk. For the absolute minimalist with not an inch of space to spare. Narrow and sleek with built-in shelves. Matching Sloane Leaning Shelves also available.

You probably are starting to look for a new house since the housing market is down and prices are lower than before. Search, search, search and then you find your dream house. But your kid(s) are not happy about that when you annouce the news. They are emotionally attached the old house since they have been for a while already. They don’t want to move, which gives you hard time. All these could be avoid if you can get them involved. First you might ask your kids about what they want for the new house, a bigger yard, a bigger bathroom, separate rooms for each kid. Get them involved and don’t let them feel powerless. Then you can always take the whole family while doing house hunting. You can even show them the pictures of the houses you’re interested on your computer. Most of the houses listed will have their pictures available online. When you are visiting the potential new homes, ask the kids what color they would like for their new rooms, furniture, bedding, and how they like to decorate their rooms. You can visit this site Decorations For Homes to get some ideas to decorate your new homes. After all, it is not only your new home, also will theirs. Rule of thumb is get everyone involved and excited about the moving. You will be surprised how much everyone in the family can contribute to the house hunting process!

I want this pull up bar…I’d put it in my bedroom…and then when I’ve used it twice and went back to eating ice cream and sitting on my couch I can still use it as a very attractive clothes hanger. A perfect solution if you don’t have closets…

Sports Furniture