Junk Love: Italian Holiday

This post is for three reasons: we really love brightly colored mid-century junk, we really love Italy, and Roman Holiday was on this weekend. Do we need more justification than that? No!

So here is a dream collection of items pulled from Etsy to brighten up an already dull week and soothe the urgent need to clear out my savings and hop on a plane for Mediterranean gorgeousness. Enjoy--mid-century Italian junk love!

Baldelli Elephant Bank; Here

Ceramic canisters; Here

Stilnovo-style wall lights; Here

Fratelli Fanciullacci pottery pitcher; Here

Valenti enamelware set; Here

Two-piece Modernist horse sculpture; Here

Bitossi blue cat; Here

San Marino-style ceramic & leather dish; Here

Yellow Ceramic Planter; Here

On the Radar -- Add Some Zest

Tribune Standard, Spring/Resort 2013

We're looking forward today, moving into 2013.  We Blackbird girls have been flirting with orange for a while now, but a citrus-y zing of lime, lemon, and orange hasn't been really been on our radar -- until we found THE CHAIR.

We were shopping in one of our favorite haunts recently (we'll never tell where it is...so don't EVEN try...) when we saw it.  A very square, very 1960s lemon-lime-orange houndstooth masterpiece of a chair with, drumroll please...the matching footstool.  In pristine condition.  We snatched it up.  We had to repack the car -- meaning we had to unload everything, put the chair and footstool in, and then repack the other stuff around it somehow.  Then it had to live in the car for weeks.  It still doesn't have a home, but it will very soon.  It's part of a top secret Blackbird project that we will reveal in the coming weeks.  I can't show you the whole thing...but here's a sneak peek!

I thought at the time, "Man, those colors are fun!" But now, after looking around a bit, I've found that it's right on trend for spring.  The zingy colors are everywhere, from cars:

2013 Dodge Dart Rallye with Citrus Peel paint

To planners:

2013 Planner from greengrass2 on Etsy

To fashion:

Rachel Roy, Resort 2013

To quilts and crafts:

Orange Slices quilt by Natalia Bonner, from TrueUp

And then I looked at the Pantone trends -- they are the go-to source for colors -- and they have it all right there on their graphic (along with, ahem, navy*):

Brilliant!

*check out our On the Radar blog post from August, Navy Chic.