sneak peek: laura normandin

i don't think i know any of my design-blogging colleagues that don't love laura normandin's work. i've purchased several of her handmade elephants for expecting friends and have been trying to justify buying one of the giraffes for myself. laura has been a craft editor at martha stewart living for over 8 years but creates beautiful handmade goods and fine art from her home in park slope, brooklyn. it's an honor to share photos of her home here today so i hope you'll enjoy them. as always, you can click here to see a slideshow of full sized and (many) additional photos of laura's home. [thanks to laura for sharing her home with us]. enjoy!

["My apartment is basically two rooms in Park Slope Brooklyn. This photo is of my craft supplies. Stacks of them. The painting and birdhouse are by Yvette Rock and the little collage is by Anna Beckman"]

["I have a pretty large deer collection but sadly no great place to display them. Here are a few including a real one on the wall. He's seen better days and is looking a little haggard."]

["My bedroom opens out to the backyard which makes it very light and airy. The art on the left side is also by Yvette Rock, a friend from Cooper Union. Athena Preston made the block printed lamp shade. The script typewriter is an Ebay find. Above the bed are a growing number of specimens I've gotten from friends in Riker Mounts. This quilt is one of my favorite things in the world. It's called a postage stamp design. It's made up of thousands of 1" squares, also from my grandma (do you see a trend, here?). My grandpa, an accomplished woodworker made me this walnut bed when I was little."]

["This little sofa holds the pillows I used to sell. I stopped because they are too big to ship and store. The bird pillow is by Salvor Fauna. The frame and print I made in college. I have been collecting LuRay pastels for a long time. My mom got hooked on Ebay a few years back and bought me many of these pieces. It's mostly from the 50's and each piece is stamped with the year it was made. It comes in 4 colors and grey. Grey is very rare, thus I hardly have any. The book shelf is from Design Within Reach. It's great for storing lots of big books in very little space. The huge book on the bottom is the Audubon Birds of America."]

["Because of lack of space, I don't have much room for aesthetic still lives. But here I can display a few things. I love the color blue. The bird is also from my grandma. The specimen boxes are made by cutting windows in patterned boxes and gluing pieces of glass in the lid. The leather dogwood is by Amy Rogers."]

["My tiny little yard. The butterfly chairs are old Martha by Mail (no longer around) made out of Sunbrella fabric. I highly recommend the Sunbrella for outdoors."]

["Muji containers hold the tatting thread (new and vintage) I use to make my flower hairclips. An old basket holds pearl cotton I use for the crochet bracelets."]

["My bedroom doubles as art studio and craft room. I put up a few shelves to hold all my fabric and old thread holders house the thread. A family friend made the thread holders many years ago and I've collected a few of them. The photocopy on my desk is from The Golden Egg book illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. I do my paintings here on this desk too. The little piece on the wall is by Margaret McCartney of Winter Water Factory fame. Even though at my day job we use fancy computerized sewing machines, I'm happy with my basic Singer."]

["I inherited this piece on the left from my grandma. I love the details and marble. It's something I probably couldn't buy or wouldn't pick out for myself. I grew up knowing it would be mine. With a few other things I drove it all the way to New York from Kansas. My yarn is waiting for the colder months for me to finish ongoing projects."]