Highland Row Antiques, Virginia Highlands, Atlanta

Sandwiched between Youngblood and the Atlanta Cup Cake shop in Virginia Highlands, is an antique store called Highland Row Antiques. Upstairs has lots of smaller retro pieces, and at the back of the store is a small staircase down into a basement area. When I say basement the area is HUGE ! It's opens out into several brick rooms that give it the feeling of an underground village. I will let the photo's speak for themselves, but the mix of old posters, reclaimed office furniture, paintings, pottery, lamps, and signs, is like a goldmine of all that is vintage and retro ! There were even a couple of Eames chairs !

Mine's a Pint ! 

A Pair of Eames Chairs, I didn't ask the price ! 

This mirror was at least 3 feet wide. 

The Black Keys in Dublin in August 2012

Quite by chance while listening to the radio driving home last night, on came an advert for the Foo Fighters AND The Black Keys playing at Boucher Fields in Belfast on the 21st of August ! Tickets for that show go on sale on the 28th of March at 09.00.
Then while looking through the gigs on Ticketmaster we saw that The Black Keys are playing the O2 in Dublin on the 22nd of August ! So we did manage to get two tickets for this show in the standing area at the front, it's going to be great to see them headlining their own gig.

This clip is The Foo Fighters playing These Days on tour in Australia and New Zealand :

Have a great weekend ! 

Cute Gifts

They don't only make great products in Japan, they really know how to package and present everything in the store too. Their attention to detail, and their flair for display really shows everything in it's best possible light.

Pancake anyone ? 

They even make plastic food to entice you into the cafe's and restaurants, a quick scrub in the washing up bowl and it's as good as new !

Soft Toys Everywhere !

Just love the face on this one ! 

Steph Thannhauser's Artwork in Paperchase

Steph was shopping in Paperchase, and spotted one of her designs on a new notebook ! It's always rewarding to see it on a product in the store. 

Dan Auerbach

Okay I got waylaid on my way to downloading El Camino ! While listening to previews of some of the tracks, I noticed that Dan Auerbach had a solo album out too ! This came out in 2009 and it completely passed me by, but the album is great. Instead of the full force of the Black Keys swampy gritty sound, the songs on this album have a lot more depth and feeling to them.

It's just so hard to just pick a track ! So here are two, well it is the weekend :) ! The first is When the Night Comes :

Wonder if it's all the beards that inspire such a great sound, this next track just rocks ! It's titled Heartbroken, In Disrepair : 

Please bring the band over to Ireland ! Have a great weekend ! 

The Black Keys : Gold On The Ceiling

We have so far resisted buying El Camino by The Black Keys but we are only putting off the inevitable !!!

They recently did a sold out tour of the UK which we could not get tickets for, though we did get to see them in Atlanta a couple of years ago. They're a great band with a great sound ... this track is the latest single in the UK ... Gold on the Ceiling : 

Think I better go download the album now !

New Kids Activity Books

Andrea created the cover artwork for six new Kids Activity Books called Little Buddies Phonics Fun. The books are packed with loads of fun educational things to do, and they are published by Creative Teaching Press in California. For a list of stores in your area that stock their books you can go to www.creativeteaching.com, and search under 'Find a Store Near You'.

We received a brand new copy of each book, it's always great to get our hands on the finished product !

Franc Franc Tokyo

It was about this time last year that we got back from a trip to Tokyo, and a week later the earthquake and tsunami struck the east coast of Japan. So it was with with a sense of wondering how things were going to be twelve months on, that we headed back to Tokyo this year. The city is not THAT far from the disaster area, so it was nice to find that Tokyo was just as buzzy as it was last year. The japanese are an amazingly resilient people, and they have just got on with clearing the disaster area up, it is going to take a long time but you just know they will do it.
We have been to Franc Franc several times in the past, it is a store full of colour and their own unique style for the home. The shop in Shinjuku is on a terrace just below Takashimya. It is also just across from Krispy Kreme that has queues outside the front door all day long !

Here are some images of the exciting products in Franc Franc this year :

Candles that look good enough to eat !