Lemonade Bottles and Cancer Theories...

This week I can across some empty Lorina (www.lorina.com) pink lemonade bottles that I had kept for decanting other liquids into. You know, the litre bottles with the pressure popper lid...

And for some reason I was reminded of the theories about plastic bottles being associated with cancer. The nurse in me just has to clear things up for you all. So I thought I'd have a little rant...

Plastic bottles do contain a chemical called BPA. When plastics are heated (when you've left your bottle of water in the car on a sunny day, or heat dinner in a plastic container) the BPA is transferred from the plastic into the food! The only lab studies that this impacted on were samples of breast cancer tissues. When BPA is mixed with these breast cancer tissue cells, they no longer responded to chemotherapy. So really, it wont give you cancer, but if you are battling cancer already, it may hinder your recovery by making treatment ineffective.

This information was gathered from "Anticancer: A New Way Of Life" written by Dr. David Server-Schreiber. A very easy to read book, written for the general public. 

http://www.anticancerbook.com/

This is the inside of my mind on a daily basis... interior design and human biology!

Makeover 1950's Terrace

I'm currently updating my grandmothers 1950's end-of-terrace house in the Midlands. It's a gorgeous retro little thing with the original features from the decade it was built (both a good thing and a bad thing at times!) and because of this it's becoming a challenge to update it while being sympathetic to the style of its' era.

Id love it to end up something like this....

http://www.plainenglishdesign.co.uk/spitalfields-5

Georgina Riverside Location image from blog at http://www.katyelliot.com/

via http://moregeous.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/design-rose-cottage-cutest-georgian-cottage-bathroom-ever/

But right now I'm doing all the work with my own two hands so I guess it'll end up looking a little less glamorous.

GARDEN ROOMS

Greenacre Escape single door log cabin

Make your escape from your house with a garden office, gym, cinema room or my favorite idea, guest bedrooms! It suits when you dont have space in your house for guest bedrooms and also like the idea of not having to share bathrooms with visitors as your garden guest room can house everything they'd need.

Stick it close enough to the house that they don't feel kicked out, but far enough away that you maintain your privacy in your own home that is often lost when hosting overnight visitors.

The Greenacre Escape (just under €2,000 depending on size) pictured above may not be much to look at now, but surf through the Walton Garden Products website for other log cabin plans and find one to suit your needs. When decorating, use your imagination. Paint it dark green, the door yellow, the windows white and stick a trellis with climbing roses up the side and this room will look so cute and relaxing you'll be tempted to move into it yourself.

See Crane Sheds and Summerhouses gallery here for more ideas. What I like about these is that you can opt for a slate effect roof, making it look less like a shed and more like a haven.

COTTAGE SPOTTING

I love to spend hours on end trawling through property sites, so much so my boyfriend informed me the other day that I'm "a whore for them"!

I've decided to open a new category for one of my favorite types of houses: cottages! As I've said before, they are unique and allow most style of interiors to work well within them, inspiring originality and creativity, which is of course the very essence of rock and roll.

Check out Rose Cottage, Athlone on Daft.ie...

A turn of the century thatched cottage with sash shaped windows and split opening front door.

KISSING on VJ Day

One of the most iconic images ever. The photo of the sailer kissing the nurse on Times Square on VJ Day would look stunningly romantic on any wall in a skinny black frame

Kissing On VJ Day

This poster comes from allposters.ie, my favorite poster website. They have a framing service but it would be much cheaper to buy your own seperately.

'A One-Way Ticket To TACKY TOWN On A Seat Next To LADY GAGA'

Jaelyn Molyneux explains the Do's and Don't's of Glam Rock for Avenue Calgary - read here

"All that Glitters is Glam Rock: The decadent flamboyance of the 1970s returns in decor that is sophisticated and saucy"

5 Steps To A Rock 'N Roll Living Room

1- Pick your favorite decade. 1950's onward are the typical rock and roll eras. Different decades have different colour schemes and accessories, red is a very 50's colour, lava lamps and tie dye are very 60's/ 70's, and so on.

2- Pick your colour scheme. Bold colours are rock and roll. Concider monochromes (black and white stripes for example). Smokey purples, fire engine reds, electric blues. Or the colour scheme of your favorite band. See  Wallpaper and Borders.co.uk for black and white ideas..

3- Concider your fabrics. Heavy rich fabrics are best (velvet, suede, faux fur). Heavy extra long floor sweeping curtains in velvet will look amazing, as would similar cushions/ throws/ rugs. It's imporatant to make the room comfortable enough to spend hours lounging in. Musicians tend to sit/ lie around an awful lot, this is what contributes to the importance of textiles in a rock and roll theme.

4- Decorate with emblems (skull & crossbone, guitar, flames)
                a- Accessorize your walls by framing your favorite posters. For example, your old faded, slighlty torn nirvana or Deep Purple posters will look amazing in large frames with thin plain black borders. Place them in pairs on one wall, eg over the couch or either side of the chimney breast. Look for musican note bookends like these Treble Clefs from Fish Bookends.com.

               b- Turn your ordinary items into feature pieces. Look for plectrum shaped ashtrays/ coffee table bowls. A clock with drumstick hands. Try making one out of a vinyl record! See Life Hackery for '5 Ways To Reuse Old Vinyl Records', and check eHow/ WikiHow/ Google. Throw a few skull and crossbone/ flame/ city skyline iron-on transferes onto oversized, slightly understuffed cushions. Buy unusual lamps (see lighting), or replace normal lampshades or stick trimming onto existing ones. Also, try looking for coloured lightbulbs like these from Lamps Online...

Incandescent - Fireglow

5- Lighting. This brings us on to lighting. Create a sultry, darker atmosphere with your lighting. Instead of a central ceiling light, use floor lamps/ table lamps with low wattage bulbs/ coloured bulbs, or if you've an unused fireplace, bundle up your fairylights into it for a muted glow. If you're into candles then you've a huge variety to choose from. Chunky large church style candles give the best look, placed symetrically on, for example, the mantlepiece.

Switch On, Rock On

Designer Denis Popenkov brings us this lighting project, a floor lamp with the ever recognisable rock on hand gesture! Via Industrial Design Served

'rocknrolla luminous'

Lost Society Bar, Dublin

Lost Society, based in an 18th century Georgian mansion at Powerscourt Townhouse, won this years Most Stylish Bar Award from Licencing World.

The interiors, designed by Irish design company Box Seven, were described as 'richly tailored'.

They also boast an afternoon tea menu, as well as cocktail and party food menus (see menus here), and the opportunity to drink and dance in a choice of rooms including the White room which was apparently once the dressing room of Lady Powerscourt herself!

BOUTIQUE CAMPING In Westmeath

Boutiquecamping.ie offer Irish camping with a difference! Self catering and posh camping in Westmeath (Ireland), including log cabins, tree houses, yurts and self catering cottages. After all, your tent (or whatever you're staying in) is technically your home away from home, so why downgrade from you're usually home comforts?

Yurt

Yurt interior

Bird Mirror

A Little bit cool or a little bit creepy? I can't decide...

Mirrored Bird Wall Art at LAURA ASHLEY

Wall Murals- For When Paint Just Won't Cut It

Wall murals by John Lewis - Click link for many more
 

Herman Saftleven Christ Teaching from Saint Peter's Boat Mural



GoodHomes.Net

http://www.goodhomes.net/decorating/living-rooms/tailored-brights-living-room.html

Click the link for full living room scheme!

Dutch Designers Tjep Give Inspiration

In light of my sisters' Dutch in-laws calling to the country...

Tjep, the Dutch designers, designed this store interior for furniture brand VilaSofa in the Netherlands.

Vilasofa



An example of their alternative designs



As far as I know they also design unusual jewellery using unique cutting techniques, and design architectural plans for certain structures.

Worlds Wierdest Cafe

The Clinic Cafe in Gurney Plaza, Penang

This appeals big time to the nurse in me! At first glance, a somewhat Eddie Rockets style diner, but look a bit closer and you notice something seems a bit off...

The food is served in metal kidney dishes on metal tables. Your seat is a vintage cot bed, and your overhead lighting is like something straight out of the OR...

The staff are wearing scrubs and tunics... 

And my favorite feature, the standard lamps are a nod to old fashioned IV drip stands, the lamp itself representing an old glass medicine bottle!

Cottage

While cottages in themselves arn't technically rock and roll, they present a certain opportunity to be...

Cottage chic has always been about throwing together any mix of items and designs you could find/ afford. This means that whatever style you choose to design your cottage in, it will rarely look out of place. This is also one of my favorite websites- cottageology.com- and it's run by an Irish girl and based on irish culture and history! Thumbs up

A Tiny Apartment Transforms into 24 Rooms

Heat Sensitive Wallpaper

Discovered through an internet search inspired by the tiles below, this wallpaper changes based on room temperature.

Designed by Shi Yuan, this doesn't actually seem to be for sale but I'm sure there are similar creations out there that are.

Heat Sensitive Tiles!

These tiles change colour based on ambient temperature, body temperature, or water temperature.

I found them on a website called Inventibles, and they're actually for sale.

Put them in your guest bathroom, and don't warn your guests before they shower!

I.V. Lamp

It’s a design from Christian Maas and it's called Lichtinfusion

Gauranteed to break the ice