I don’t know why this is so appealing to me…

…but it is!

The Deer Head by Ben Gatski. Metal Wall Art created entirely from recycled farm machinery, from artful home.com ($360).  Not too big, either (26w 18h 13d). I’d put it on the deck and string it with lights for Christmas!

I’ve been thinking: I use the words “amazing” and “gorgeous” too often. But what can you do? With so many beautiful elements in the world of design, there’s only so many adjectives to go around.

With that in mind, here’s an amazing gift for someone very special:

The Ocean Reef Paperweight Sphere by Michael Egan. $225 from artful home.com . Gorgeous!

I haven’t been thinking about Christmas at all — then I saw this gorgeous ornament:

Isn’t it amazing? It really caught my eye and the thing is, we don’t even put up a Christmas tree! (No reason really; I think we’re just waiting for grandchildren someday. No pressure, kids!)

The “Bejeweled” Art Glass Ornament by Paul Lockwood. $32 at artful home.com .

Our focus group “party” is just hours away: 7p tonight at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (S. Lamar near Riverside).

We want your opinions on new advertising for Metamorefix — and all the ideas come from our amazing group of UT students competing in the Student Consulting Initiative.

We’ll wrap things up with an amazing raffle of ten gifts from west elm, a design tip for each, plus a grand prize of a one-hour consultation with Metamorefix.

Why not come out and discover your inner butterfly?

Here’s a sampling of the great prizes to be won at our focus group this week (we’ll have ten prizes in all plus a grand prize of a one-hour consultation with Metamorefix):

Do we know how to throw a party, or what?

A huge shout-out to Jonathan and Gayla at west elm, who helped make our fantastic give-away possible!

The event is this Thursday, 7-8P, at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on S. Lamar near Riverside. Space is limited, so please RSVP to heather.duval@bba09.mccombs.utexas.edu . See you there!

Here are some of the other great prizes we’re giving away at this week’s focus group (a huge hug and kiss to our friends at west elm):

All prizes will come with some great decorating tips as well, and don’t forget the grand prize: a one-hour consultation with Metamorefix!

The event is this Thursday, 7-8P, at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on S. Lamar near Riverside. Space is limited, so please RSVP to heather.duval@bba09.mccombs.utexas.edu . See you there!

We’ve become acquainted with an amazing group of UT students over the past few weeks. They are participating in the Student Consulting Initiative, a competition supported by the McCombs School of Business.

We’ve been working closely together to fine-tune our advertising, marketing, and business growth models. They have blown us away with their state-of-the-art knowledge and ideas. . .their energy and enthusiasm are incredible!

Here’s the team:

The Wonder Team! From left: Kevin, Cameron, Heather, and Melanie

The SCI is conducting a one-hour focus group on our behalf this Thursday, Nov 3, 7P at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on S. Lamar near Riverside. Might sound kinda dry, but it’s guaranteed to be fun!  Participants will be asked for feedback on a new set of potential ads for Metamorefix as well as their thoughts on a pricing model . Coffee and desserts are complimentary, and we will cap things off with a raffle of 10 great prizes from west elm (thank you Jonathan and Gayla!) and a grand prize of one design hour with yours truly, the Design Team at Metamorefix.

Space is limited, so please RSVP to:  heather.duval@bba09.mccombs.utexas.edu

We’ll see you there!

Wow, long time no blog!

Way back in June I had a bad accident with a kitchen knife. I was making lunch when the knife slipped: all the way through my hand!

All is well now or almost, anyway. I still have some numbness but I seem to have full use of my hand and, most importantly, good wiggle with all fingers. In the meantime, I want to remind everyone to always use a cutting board.

One of our clients gave me a wonderful tool to prevent this kind of accident from reoccurring — an avocado tool. Here it is:

From the Trudeau Corporation, it is available at amazon.com among other places for $5. I’ve used it a number of times and it works beautifully!

We interrupt our special Christmas blog series to announce the highly-anticipated 2011 Color of the Year, just released from Pantone. And (drum roll, please) here it is:

Amazing, isn’t it? I can’t believe they chose a pink! Pink is famous in the design world as a real love-it-or-hate-it color. You wouldn’t say “why don’t we do this sofa in pink?” to just anyone.

Could this be the start of a new neutral? Wow,  that would be news.

Time will tell. Pantone itself calls the color “courageous” as well as “confident” and “vital” for a “brave new world”, presumably one in which people are feeling good about their chances for prosperity again.

See more at http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=20821&ca=4&utm_source=eb20101209

We really don’t have anything against accent walls except for one, teeny-tiny thing:

We don’t like accent walls.

You know the ones we’re talking about, right? The big, bold swath of color that always seems to make its way to the wrong wall. We see this often, usually in homes where the client loves color but just isn’t sure how to go about it.

So they pick one wall.

If your heart is set on an accent wall, go for the big wall in the room, the one without windows. Anything else can chop a room into pieces and will always be a little jarring when you enter. And that’s the last thing we want you to feel when you enter any room in your home.

So consider this: take that big bold color, choose a shade that has a green or brown undertone (instead of blue or yellow), and go for it on all four walls – make that all FIVE walls for a total cocoon effect. The undertone softens the color, and more color softens the overall effect.

Here’s what we mean: