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The Brisbane apartment of young interior designer Claire Stevens and Hamish McIntosh.  Kitchen and Living. Thonet kitchen counter stools. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Kitchen details. ‘We have a lot of indoor plants as they are cheaper and last longer than flowers!’ says Claire. ‘With no outlook onto a garden or yard the green always keeps the place looking fresh’. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Living area. Vintage poster from Studio M Galleries in Sydney, coffee table – Flynn by Jardan, cushions – custom designed by Claire, side tables – Hay Tray Table from Corporate Culture. ‘One difficulty with the house is the lack of wall hanging space in the living areas. We set up a picture hanging system to create more room for art’ says Claire. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Living room detail. ‘I had a lot of fun with colour in this place’ says Claire. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Claire Stevens poses for a photo in the kitchen. George the spoodle sits alongside her on another stool – Claire says he’s not this small anymore! Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

We’re kicking off our house tours for the year with this modest but super cute little apartment in Brisbane’s New Farm, which belongs to young interior designer Claire Stevens, and her partner Hamish McIntosh.

Claire and Hamish live here with their Spoodle George (who Claire says pretty much runs the place!). Bright and airy with generous adjoining balconies, this apartment has been transformed into the perfect versatile living and working space for this industrious young couple. Claire works from home, having launched her business just two years ago.  She works mainly on residential and small-scale commercial projects, and took great pleasure in updating this light filled two bedroom apartment when she joined Hamish here just over two years ago. Hamish is a commercial banker Bank of Queensland. The pair are actually due to get married very soon on the 17th of January – congrats in advance guys!

Hamish has lived here for about 4 years, whilst Claire moved in about 2 ½ years ago… and it didn’t take long before she felt compelled to make a few changes to his bachelor pad! ‘When I first met him all he had was a mattress on the floor for a sofa and black leather recliner… both are now gone!’ she says, insisting he has actually be very enthusiastic about the transformation!

‘We added some built in cabinetry for storage and display, to add some interest into the main living area, and swapped the carpet for an oak timber floor, and lighter carpet in the bedrooms’ says Claire. New light fittings, shutters and furniture were also selected to complement these contemporary updates.

The apartment occupies a whole floor of the building, which fortunately means balconies on two sides – ‘we are lucky that we can open up the whole place onto the surrounding balconies to really make the most of the inside/outside living’ says Claire. The pair decided to put these outdoor spaces to good use, choosing to place their large dining table outside rather than waste precious floorspace inside. ‘It is not too bad, even in winter…’ says Claire. You have to love that Queensland weather!

Claire and Hamish love New Farm, which is a great area with excellent cafes, shops and galleries all within walking distance, and just a stone’s throw from the bustling retail precinct at Fortitude Valley. ‘New Farm is such a great suburb to live in Brisbane, close to the city and so many great restaurants and shops in walking distance’ says Claire. ‘We are also lucky enough to have some fantastic views to the North of Brisbane and city glimpses. The natural light is amazing here, for work and living.’

Huge thanks to Claire and Hamish for sharing their sweet love nest with us today! For more of Claire’s work do check out her website here.

Bedroom artwork by Rachel Castle, Olba sidetable by Jardan, Jonathan Adler fabric from Ascraft for the bedhead, and Christopher Farr Cloth cushions also by Ascraft. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Looking through to bedroom and Claire’s home office. Chair by Kartell. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Outdoor dining area. ‘It is a great entertaining area out here’ says Claire. ‘The light over the table helps to create intimacy in an outdoor setting’. Tribu table from Cosh Living, light from Town and Country Style – it’s a Tierlan Tijn Light handmade in the Netherlands. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

View to balcony. Black and White Photograph from the Conde Nast Collection Archive. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

Balcony. ‘We get all the morning sun in the front part of the unit’s balcony. It is such a lovely spot to have breakfast and I often have meetings out here’ says Claire. Photo – Toby Scott for The Design Files.

On New Year's Day 2014, I did my very first real snow shoveling, and let me tell you — that stuff is no joke. We had 1-2 feet of snow covering a driveway that's larger than my last apartment, meaning I got a serious introduction to the world of shoveling. I found the work and the exertion exhilarating, but really had no idea what I was doing. Time to bring in the experts...

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From 1954-1958, George Nelson designed and built a house in Kalamazoo, Michigan for his close friends, the Kirkpatricks. Over the course of those four years, Nelson worked with his associate Gordon Chadwick to come up with the highly personalized design. Now, 55 years later, the home is completely livable and contemporary after a ten year effort to restore the home, complete with its original details, by the most recent owner, David Corner.

Nelson made sure to factor in open spaces with plenty of natural light. In the living and dining area, he incorporated an arc of recessed lighting that followed the lines of a custom sofa he had made for the house. Nelson’s most notable priority was “livability” and the home certainly stands up in modern times, just like it did then.

On the other side of the living room is the dining room that has Eames Wire Chairs and a Nelson Table. The pendant light was recreated based on original drawings and photographs.

The homeowner did extensive research when restoring the home, making sure to perfect every last detail, including the original color scheme.

The home is filled with current and vintage pieces of Herman Miller furniture that you can spot throughout. Nelson even prototyped furniture through the building phase of the house using them as “guinea pigs” for future furniture designs.

Photos by Paul Barbera, courtesy of Herman Miller.

I feel like our relationship has lost it’s passion, Ernie.

For Leah Verwey and Rob Simonsen, the best kind of home is a lived-in home. Shoes by the front door, wrinkled couch cushions and a dog foot print or two — these are some of the things Leah and Rob embrace about a home. While they want their home to be comfortable, they also like to fill it with reminders of loved ones from far away, such as Leah’s sister’s ceramics, her grandfather’s art and Rob’s grandmother’s glass collection. Add to that pieces from local craftsman and the result is an eclectic and well-loved home. Leah is a photographer, working with many of the creative folks around Portland, while Rob is a project manager for A to Z Media, a company that specializes in making vinyl records and CDs for the music industry. Thank you Leah and Rob! -Shannon

Image above: That’s Tallulah pup giving me the sassy stink eye for waking her up. She obviously runs the show here. I picked up the portrait of a man behind her at an estate sale, and I liked it because it looks like he’s wearing purple eye shadow. I’ve named him Burt, and Rob would like to relocate him to a less prominent part of the house but I like him too much. Sorry Rob.

Image above: The breakfast nook totally sold us on the house. It’s the sunniest spot in the house, and living in the Pacific Northwest teaches you to value that light more than anything. Those pillows and the basket of everyday napkins are from the always amazing non-perishable goods, whom I have the privilege of working with. The print is a photo of mine, and the terrarium is from Artemisia.

See more of this Portland home after the jump…

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One of the bright spots at the Stationery Show, each May, is the Yellow Owl Workshop booth. No matter what the rest of the show is like there is always something new and fun in the booth (like their party kits last year or their recipes cards the year before that or their stamp sets the year before that). So we ask Yellow Owl Workshop founder Christine Schmidt (check out our Biz Ladies profile of her right here)for a little peek into the Noe Valley home she shares with husband Evan Gross (who has an equally awesome job as deputy City Attorney for the city of San Francisco, specializing in affordable housing development), daughter Emmy and their two lovely pups Calvin and Clementine. This is the couple’s seventh home in their twelve years together. They’ve been in this space for three years. After so many years of moving, they don’t worry about creating a decorating theme or colorscape because as Christine said, “As renters, you never know if your next home will have, say, pink tile, like we have now.” Instead, they just make a point of collecting (or making things) that have some significance for them. And although, Christine has a studio space for Yellow Owl Workshop, she often designs at home. As a result, the house is a bit like a diary of her changing interests and obsessions. So, for example, the nautical flag in the living room was an Ebay score during the time she was working on her nautical flag greeting cards. Her current favorite piece is the s the graphite drawing in her bedroom from a needlework pattern-inspired series by Robert Otto Epstein. Thank you, Christine, Evan & Emmy! And thank you to Aubri Pick for the fantastic photos! -Amy

Image above: A modular mid-century shelving unit I scored on Craigslist, which houses all of Evan’s records and most of our books. The California Pennant pillow and Trophy lamp are from my collaboration with Schoolhouse Electric of Portland (which is sold out so no longer on their website, but it was on Design*Sponge here.) Handsome gent on the couch is a great acquisition from a rescue dog shelter in DC, Calvin S. Bones.

Image above: This is my home base for both work and life and it is never ever this clean. Here, my rubber stamped designs co-mingle with toys and stale cheerios, and I just wouldn’t have it any other way. Wood periodic table chart from Craigslist, which once hung in Redwood City High School. Danish table from a thrift store in town (can’t remember which one), chairs are one of my many prized scores from eBay, and a William Carlos Williams poem with too few letters. Yes, people, that is some southern exposure.

See more photos this San Francisco home after the jump!
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Getting back into the swing of things is always a bit trying after a long holiday break. To help perk up our mornings I made a blackberry coffee cake to accompany (much needed) cups of coffee. I used a recipe from this cook book by Jessica Seinfeld, which I have been devouring lately. It’s chocked full of easy, straight forward recipes for days that require a simple route. Aside from the a.m. hours I love this dish as an afternoon treat or part of a tea time spread. Side note: I altered the recipe just a tad and included flax seed to make it a teensy bit healthier. Blackberry Crumb Cake

Make the topping first:
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar packed
3 T. unsalted butter melted
Combine all the ingredients and mix them together to form moist crumbs.

The cake:
8 T. unsalted butter
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T. flaxseed (optional)
1/2 c. milk
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 c. blackberries, or enough to cover one layer
Start by whisking together the flour, baking powder, flaxseed and salt. In a large mixing bowl mix together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, add in the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla. Spoon in half of the flour mixture, add the milk and then the rest of the flour. Pour the mixture into a greased springform pan, even out with a spatula and top with the blackberries. Add the topping and bake for 38 minutes at 350º. Be sure to let it cool for at least 10 minutes afterwards.

Tools for this recipe…

The post Blackberry Coffee Cake appeared first on could i have that?.

Sen. Alting has introduced SB 5 which would “allow a small brewer to sell the brewer’s beer to consumers for carryout at a farmers’ market that is operated on a nonprofit basis, in a quantity of not more than 576 ounces [roughly 2 cases or 9 growlers] per consumer at any one time” so long as the beer is placed in the bottle or container at the brewer’s permit premises.

As this would likely result in People’s Brew being sold under a mile from my house at the West Lafayette farmer’s market; I have to hope for passage of this bill.

If you’re close to my age, you probably remember the classic 1984 Apple Macintosh computer with the built-in screen. I had one and I worked on one at my first internship. Imagine my delight when I saw this LEGO interpretation (you all know my love of LEGO by now)! Oslo-based Jason Kinsella and Charlotte Bakken are the ones to thank (Thanks!) and these advertising professionals wanted to re-imagine this classic with a modern twist…

And they did just that by incorporating an iPad into the design. Talk about full circle! This Apple mashup shows just how a brand can evolve from its inception to modern times. These LEGO fans created the 1984 computer to scale with just a few simple adjustments to accommodate the iPad.

The amazing JukeCase store in Collingwood!  Custom postie bike by Postmodern Motorcycles.  Photo - Sean Fennessy.

Custom JukeCase with customised postie bike by Postmodern Motorcycles.  Photo - Sean Fennessy.

Rubin Utama and Vincent Corneille outside their Collingwood store.  Photo – Sean Fennessy.

I have a real softspot for Melbourne hipsters.  Especially entrepreneurial hipsters. They are the best kind!  I’m not sure where this blog would be without the earnest entrepreneurial spirit of the clever and slightly crazy kids who populate our creative city… like the two we are about to meet!

Vincent Corneille and Rubin Utama went to high school together in Melbourne, and after what they describe as ‘a brief period of loathing each other’, were drawn together by their similar interests – a love of music, good friends and the outdoors.  It’s these shared interests which have also inspired their joint venture – the JukeCase!

‘Music can mean a lot more when it is shared and enjoyed with others’ explains Vincent. ‘A strange consequence of the popularity of portable MP3 players is an increasing sense of isolation – headphones on, we can sink into our own universe of music and comfortably shy away the world’ he continues.  Conversely, the JukeCase is about portable music that is social.

Vincent says the first JukeCase came about out of necessity.  ’I had a challenge – how can we make high-quality audio portable?’ he says.  It was originally Vincent’s Dad, an audio enthusiast, who put the pieces of the puzzle together. ‘We chose to use vintage speakers for their warmth and quality – many of the drivers we use were worth hundreds of dollars new in the 60′s and 70′s’.  The next challenge was the casing.  ’It made sense to have a handle, so a suitcase seemed like the logical choice’ explains Vincent, matter of factly.  ’The vintage speakers we use aesthetically match suitcases from the same era, so it made sense to combine these.  Modern speakers made of plastic are too ostentatious for our liking!’

After taking his first prototype out to the park with friends in the summer of 2011, orders started coming in. He wasn’t quite prepared for the response!  ’After a few requests from friends, word started getting around and the business has grown steadily since’ says Vincent, who was previously working as a cancer research scientist.  ”The first year and a half of business was all about market stalls and refining the product. Balancing full-time work and this emerging business quickly became demanding, so as of July last year it has been a full-time venture for my Rubin and myself’.  In September this year, the pair took another bold leap of faith, opening their very own shop in Collingwood!

So what’s next for JukeCase? ‘We are talking to a few new cafes about providing custom audio fit-outs, which is a really exciting avenue, and we have a few new products focusing on home-audio that are in development’ says Vincent.  And of course, true to the original inspiration for their product, the pair are also planning a few outdoor parties over summer!  ’Out the back of our new shop we also have a large courtyard that we are currently fitting out with outdoor furniture so we can host dinner parties and summertime fun – keep an eye out!’ says Vincent.

JukeCases can be bought from the boys’ Collingwood store, via their online shop, and also from stockists listed on their website.  Each JukeCase has a minimum of 20 hours battery life! Prices start at $330, with larger deluxe models priced at about $700.

JukeCase
195 Johnston St
Collingwood, VIC

Open Wednesday to Saturday, 10.00am to 6.00pm, and Sunday 12.00pm to 4.00pm.

Rubin Utama puts his self confessed ‘Macgyver skills’ to work in the JukeCase workshop!  Photo - Sean Fennessy.

A freshly built JukeCase.  Photo - Sean Fennessy.

The JukeCase store in Collingwood. Photo - Sean Fennessy.

(Image credit: Lindsey Kay Averill)

Name: Cyndi Coon
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Size: 1,800 square feet
Years lived in: 13 years; owned

Cyndi's home, a ranch-style house built in 1958, is a stunning ode to all things found, reclaimed, and vintage. It's a home you can stare at for hours: peering into glass-fronted cases, admiring collections of ceramics, and wondering at the story behind each object. It's about as far away from childproofed as you can get. Nevertheless, it's home to two girls both under the age of eight.

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Overlooking West Grand Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan, the M-22 House sits along the top of a ridge and combines a touch of rustic with clean modern lines to blend in with the home’s environment. With Michael Fitzhugh Architect at the helm, the house reveals itself, much like the views discovered once the back of the ridge has been ascended.

The residence nestles in perfectly on the lot and from each room, a connection to the surrounding landscape is felt. The feeling is also helped by them utilizing materials that were inspired by the elements.

The home’s exterior is made up of concrete, steel, composite siding, and expanses of glass, breaking up the large exterior forms.

They incorporated geothermal heating and cooling systems combined with its own hydroelectric power generator that uses rainwater, geothermal water, and gravity to generate power to run the house.

A sunken living space sits within a room that has double height ceilings. The suspended fireplace make quite the statement with the super long vent.

The interior is open and spacious with wide walkways and large panels of glass. The walls and ceilings downstairs are white but the second floor ceilings are covered in wood creating a bit of coziness. How perfect is the purple Togo sofa from Ligne Roset?

The sunroom is all about the outdoors with windows framing the incredible view.

I love the wood they used throughout, helping to warm up the modern space.

Photos by Dietrich Floeter Photography.