Retro phones for the home

Renovating your home can be expensive as we’ve come to realize recently. Although we’re not at a stage where we can afford just any furniture or renovation detail that we like, the thought of building a our very first home together is exciting enough.

That said, it’s always a joy to find cool home items online and in stores. While listing the appliances we needed, we realized we would probably like a home phone to make calls.

Here’s a couple of really cool phones in retro designs that would add a really nice touch to the room:

wild and wolf retro trim phone turquoise

{turquoise trim phone by wild and wolf}

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Save the date!

Things have been a crazy whirlwind and it’ll probably be even crazier over the next few months. But the good news is that the date for our big day is set!

There’ll be even more DIY projects to come as we prepare for our wedding and I’m excited to share them with you. :)

First up, a brief version of our save the date card design:

save the date | micheleng.com

(I’ve removed some details for privacy but you get the general idea.)

More about the design

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Discover Chinese design talent at BUNDSHOP!

It’s always such a joy to discover collections of treasures online and when I found out about the opening of BUNDSHOP, it totally made my day!

There have been so many stories about the challenges of manufacturing in China, but few people ever talk about Chinese design talent! In recent years, there have been individual big names like Chinese couturier Guo Pei (whose work I absolutely adore) that have been making international waves. But Chinese design on a whole perhaps hasn’t carved as strong an identity as say, Swedish design. It seems that way at least, although I may be wrong :)

BUNDSHOP brings together the coolest products from fashion and industrial designers from Mainland and Greater China and makes them available for purchase across the globe. But beyond that, it tells the story of these designers and how each brand and product came into being. That’s truly my favorite part – learning about the stories behind each product.

As a designer, it’s often a struggle to get a product made to perfection. Whether it’s quality control issues, technical difficulties, meeting minimums, the list of problems sometimes seems to go on forever. So it’s always very encouraging and inspiring to see other designers overcome these sometimes insurmountable problems to bring a gorgeous piece of design into the world.

And if you don’t believe me when I say gorgeous, check out some of these products:

Shanghai breeze fan by Carl Liu at BUNDSHOP … 

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Get your designs made at Sketch Street!

Have you ever had an idea for a new fashion piece in your mind and wished you could find it in stores? Makes the shopping experience horrible doesn’t it? ;)

Here’s your chance to design your own pieces and have it made for the world to love and wear! All you need to do is submit your sketches to Sketch Street. The winning designs will be selected based on relevancy to the running theme, public votes and commercial viability. All the hard work in sampling and manufacturing will be taken care of the good people there who will work closely with you, the designer :)

Check out this past winning design and how it turned from a sketch into something really cool!

Original winning sketch by Liu Ruiyue:

 

sketch street leather lace top by liu ruiyue

Final product (you can view it on Sketch Street here):

leather lace top | sketch street

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Beautiful mooncakes

It’s mid-autumn festival here in Singapore and time for a ton of delicious mooncakes! Everyone has been talking about how yummy they are but has anyone noticed how gorgeous the designs are getting over the years? Here are some of my favorite ones:

peony jade mooncake

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