Happy Halloween Star Wars Style

Remember my cousins and their awesome 80's power couple costumes? Well, I just had to share their really creative costumes this year. Hello Star Wars trio, aren't they adorable! Learn about all the details over on Andrea's blog here. 

Have a safe Halloween everyone!

Ritual Cleanse

Every year I do my best to do some sort of cleanse. Last year I tried this one and as part of a monthly practice I fast one day each month. It still amazes me how connected our minds, bodies and spirits are and how I always see a triple shift in everything when I focus on one aspect heavily. This past weekend I took on the challenge of drinking only fresh cold-pressed juice for three days, and today I feel fantastic.

Ritual Cleanse sent me their three-day seasonal reset juice cleanse and it has been a long time since I've felt this energized. At times it was a little tricky as I prepared meals for our little ones and it being Halloween weekend and all, but after day two it was all good. Their system of orderly bottled fresh organic juices was super easy, just untwist and drink (about every two to three hours) which I liked and found really convenient. (Check out my fridge!) Although I thought they were all tasty, the cashew drink at the end of the day was my favorite.

What about you? Have you participated in a cleanse or do you ever fast? What about drinking green juice or smoothies? I would love to hear about it!

Want to try Ritual Cleanse maybe pre or post holidays? They are offering Black Eiffel readers a discount of 10% off through November 30th. Just enter BEreader at checkout. 

(I was not compensated for this post, I reviewed and did this cleanse because I was super excited about trying it, and normally do this kind of thing in my real life.)

Halloween Edition Music Monday : Young Galaxy

Happy Halloween, I saw this Young Galaxy music video for the song 'Phantoms' and felt it fit well for holiday and Music Monday. Kind of spooky ghost fun. What do you think?

Find the Young Galaxy latest album Shapeshifting on Amazon.*

Happy Friday.

Have a great weekend everyone. Are you getting ready for Halloween or going to some fun parties? I love this Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox costume idea.

Hope you are having a great Thursday!

I'm playing a little catch up around here working on some projects. Yesterday our darling V turned 5! I can't believe it.

The shot above is one I took with my phone from the movie, The Red Balloon* that V picked to watch the other day, it is one of our favorites.

Lately we are so slammed and intrigued in other things, that we rarely watch tv or movies. When we do have a movie night, I like to share and watch the good stuff with our girls. I thought I would ask you readers, what is your favorite children's film? I am always looking for really great ones we've never seen.

Inspired by Ettore Sottsass

The patterns and colors of Ettore Sottsass Ceramics from the 50s are rad. (photos from here)

Handmade Charlotte

Rachel Faucett amazes me. She has five kids, lives on a farm, shares some outrageously cool and unique design inspiration on her blog Handmade Charlotte as well as other websites, and she makes stunningly detailed children's clothing. She was also a guest blogger on Black Eiffel a while back too. When does she sleep?

I was delighted to find out that she along with her very small team hand-stiched these gorgeous heirloom pieces that are now available over at Anthropologie. It makes me happy to see her beautiful work in the spotlight.

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Music Monday : Matt Corby

I hope you had a nice weekend! I'm excited about Music Monday today because I can't believe I have never heard of Australian singer/songwriter Matt Corby until this weekend. The first thirty seconds I heard him sing from this clip (shared below), I thought I was listening to Jeff Buckley, Bon Iver and Nick Drake's nephew. It gave me major shivers. His voice is absolutely incredible and wow, only twenty-one years old. Another young one like last week.

Give him a listen, I think I will be playing this video clip and others on repeat this week. His new EP comes out November 11th in Australia.

It is tricky to find his albums in the U.S. I believe he has one or two tracks on the U.S. iTunes, and you can find these imports on Amazon*, but if anyone has another source, let me know. You can download a free tune on his website.

(Top photo from Luna Magazine)

Happy Friday!

Have a relaxing fall weekend!

Fun print by Hazel Nicholls

Little Darlings

I love Sharon Montrose's animal photography and was delighted to see that she did a new series of close-up baby animals. I briefly showed these to little India and she immediately coohed and oohed in glee... She especially loved this one. All of them are so cute! Which one is your favorite? See them all here.

(All photos by Sharon Montrose)

Lemlem scarves

A Lemlem scarf is being added to my wish list. They are made in Ethopia and are just gorgeous. I remember seeing them circulate the web a while back, but recently came across them again and the beautiful colors and textures have me smiling.

Fall Clutch Love

My days are usually spend carrying around a diaper bag so every once in a while I dream of a closet full of cute little clutches, they aren't the most practical for me at the moment, but they sure are dang beautiful to look at. Here are some pretty fall favorites... Are you a clutch kind of gal?

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(Come to find out #1 is a wallet, here is the clutch version in lime.)

Sweet Mousepad

The hip and crafty extraordinaire Susan just put up these madly cool mouse pads in her shop Freshly Picked yesterday. Aren't they rad? I am partial to the gold, but she has other great colors you can see here too.

Created out of recycled paper?! Wow...

Artist Jennifer Collier takes recycled paper and does some serious paper magic by creating the most intricate and lovely art pieces. That typewriter with the colorful keys is brilliant and the cool map camera, crikey, it is hard to pick a favorite. Amazing!

(via Uncle Beefy) // all photos from Jennifer Collier

Music Monday : Ben Howard

Ben Howard a British singer-songwriter's music has recently become an instant favorite. Beautiful acoustic guitar music like this gets to me. It makes me want to go sit around a camp fire and curl up in a warm blanket by the beach, or go on a road trip. The video is also stunning. I can't wait to see this young twenty-three year old's music career unfold, he is so talented. Have a listen and tell me what you think.

Find or download his new album, Every Kingdom on Amazon if you would like.*

Photos from Ben Howard's Facebook page.

Have wonderful weekend!

Hope your weekend is full of happiness and relaxation!

*A few more snippets from the beach last weekend.

The box

Yahoo, my first organic produce box arrived today, and it made me giddy like a school-girl when I opened it up. I nabbed a few shots with my phone and then the epiphany came (probably because my daughter asked why on earth I was taking snaps of vegetables) that I may just be a 'major' produce nerd! This Northern California produce is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Anyone get super excited about pretty fruit and vegetables?

For a good cause...

October happens to be Ovarian and Breast Cancer Awareness month so emails about cool awareness initiatives have been flooding in. I recently learned about Electrolux's campaign with Kelly Ripa where they are in search of America's Favorite Comfort Food. They are giving $1 to Ovarian Cancer Research for each vote on your favorite comfort food and are committed to raising $1 million overall.

It is rad to see companies like Electrolux get creative about how they donate money for a good cause. Cancer research is extremely important to me. My aunt suffered from Ovarian cancer and my grandmother was recently diagnosed. This blogger friend's news also breaks my heart. 

I dream of a cancer free world.

Art Translated

Serendipitously I came across the artwork of Jeff Depner and being an enthusiast of stripes, polka-dots and cool spins on geometry it really made me happy. After perusing his site for a bit, I discovered that Pringle of Scotland used his work as inspiration for their Spring/Summer Collection of 2012. How awesome is that! Can you think of any other rad artwork that has directly translated onto the runway?

(All art by Jeff Depner from his website + Pringle of Scotland)

Creative Halloween Costumes

I have some cool cousins and their Halloween costumes ideas from last year are pretty clever. My cousin Abe and his wife Andrea dressed up as an 80's power couple, gotta love that cell phone! My cute cousin Andrea recreated Pippi. Are you a creative costume maker that plans ahead? I wish I was, ah... maybe next year. How are your costumes coming, planning anything spectacular?

(photos from Strawberry Chic )

Modern Pumpkins

These fantastic ideas of how to modernize a pumpkin for Halloween or Fall decor have my interest. I love how fresh and simple they are and minimize having a pumpkin go under the knife. They have my brain spinning with ideas.

Craft ideas and photos from : 1 - Darling Doodles 2 - Happy Mundane

Music Monday : High Highs

I am enjoying this song called 'Open Season' from the High Highs lately. Chill music. Happy Music Monday!

Weekend Wandering : "Get some clarity oceanside..."

Over the weekend we took a spontaneous trip to the coast and heard the waves crash. India saw the ocean for the first time, and wiggled her little bitty toes in the sand while V ran and danced all about. It was just what we needed. I hope you had a nice weekend, what were you up to?

Happy Moments + Have a Great Weekend!

I looked over while fixing some yummy farro soup last night for dinner (recipe from this book) and our little India climbed up on a chair and started playing with blocks. It melted my heart and I can't believe how time can pass in a blink.

It was a reminder to me how much more I want to cherish the present and those small little moments of joy, something that I need to do more often. I'm working on being more conscious and aware of the details. Putting my bare feet in the grass, really feeling the chilly rain on my face, and checking out the different shaped suds and colors in the sink from the clean dishes.

How do you savor the happy moments?

Have a great weekend all!

Emily Henderson Style

Emily Henderson is all kinds of amazing, I dig her style and wit. Above are some shots from her portfolio that I am inspired by and boy am I looking for some serious ideas as I work on our new space. I still find it crazy random how I caught her season of Design Star a while back because I don't watch tv too often. I was rooting for her the whole time and am happy to see her continuing success. I hope to catch up on episodes of her show 'Secrets From a Stylist' online here.

(All photos from Emily Henderson's portfolio)

Music Monday on a Tuesday : Feist

I am a huge Leslie Feist fan and her long awaited album dropped today (yesterday in Europe). This morning I read an interesting interview of her over at Pitchfork that made me like her even more. I enjoy not only the way she sings, but also the way she thinks, she seem so authentic and legit. I will be listening to her new album Metals as I unpack more boxes today. Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Photo by Mary Rozzi (via Pitchfork)

Download Feist's new album Metals over here on Amazon.*