otis & frank: May 2011

i wish i could pull this off

So I'd like to think that biologically only Scandinavians can use a pallet for a bed frame and make it look amazing.

My (amazing) uncle just reminded me how much you end up like your parents. Case in point, in the face of any difficulty...I cook. I realized this as I was hell bent and halfway through making a peach blueberry cobbler (never made this before in my life.) On to roast chicken, greek salad, and a stir fry...and hmmm...fettuccine alfredo sounds nice too (no cream, just butter, yum.) All very comforty foods, and this is probably a major psychological flaw, but I'll deal with that perhaps a little later in life.

Simply Recipes is usually my starting point, mostly for the pictures as I'm horrible (the English side of me now wants to say rubbish rather than horrible) at following directions.

Here though I've included some beautiful photos of Kitka's lunch of smørrebrød at Aaman's in Copenhagen.

nyc

I'd really like to go here to see my friend, who is awesome.

Photo via Fantastic Frank

design icon

I laughed so hard this morning - my amazingly thoughtful/hilarious sister in law sent this to me, all the way to from Canada to England. Did everyone have one of these in the house when they were a child??? I did, and I thought it was the coolest thing for some reason. Still do.

emporda, spain

I'm totally going here on Wednesday! Yay.

Via onnoth (Flickr)

bread & wine

Môreson is a farm and vineyard in in Franschhoek, South Africa. They also have a restaurant, called Bread and Wine (perfectly named and they serve homemade Charcuterie!) and is now home to the Exotic Plant Company, who sell beautiful orchids.

Um, perfect?

Via Miss Moss, who has actually been there.

Lunchtime shopping

Brass bottle openers

Chopstick rests

Handmade scissors

Drooling over these Japanese home accessories over at Mjolk.

narrow stairs

Narrow stair inspiration for a friend of mine who will be making a stair decision in the near future...

5 boroughs in 48 hours

Photographer Jake Stangel was commissioned by Dwell magazine to photograph 5 NYC boroughs in 48 hours. Traveling by foot, bus, subway and ferry, he tried to capture the feeling of each area.

It's a fun idea and I like the photos. Whole link here.