PAPAYA! BLOG

PaPaYa! Down Under

As our company has grown we have had the pleasure of expanding PaPaYa!'s imagery and inspiration all over the world.  This summer I ventured over the pacific to go and meet our Australian distributor counterparts at Mackay and Gerrish. 

Sydney is a city full of great restaurants, inviting parks, and a vibrant night life.  The city has the perfect mixture of interesting architecture, rich history, blended with new modern style and comfort.  Lets not forget the desirable proximity to the world famous Bondi beach.

I decided I would need to take a walk around the city and snap a few pics that really feature the varied subtleties of such a well rounded and fabulous city.   My favorite is the picture of the brick retaining wall. It is refinished with three or four different types of bricks from different time periods.

Pretty In Pink

PaPaYa's favorite IT savior, design guru, and sales virtuoso, Brennan decided to shake things up a bit at the end of this years NYIGF by trading in his safe and wholesome hairdoo for a sensational new bright pink mowhawk.

After grabbing lunch in Chelsea, Brennan spontaneously walked into the nearest salon and requested a mohawk. "Oh, you must mean a faux hawk" said the stylist. "No" said Brennan "I want the creepy 80s mohawk from Taxi Driver". And so it was. Phase one: complete.

After returning to Ashland, Oregon Brennan continued onto Phase Two of mohawk mayhem with a two-step color process to complete the look.

 
Color processing by Napilli at Salon Isabella pictured above right

On the scientific Mohawk Meter, I give Brennan's hairdoo a 7 out of 10. How do you rate the pink mohawk?
 

Portland Oregon's Ink & Peat

Recently we've fallen in love with the amazing eye for all things stylish on the blog housemartin. Written by the owner of Portland's Ink & Peat, you can see that her store is an amazing treasure trove too, pairing the art of floral arranging and garden elements in this magical environment filled with paper, apothecary, and textiles (... what a treat, to find our journals nestled in lovingly within their displays, and how perfect is that birdcage?!).

Papaya's Resident Flower Boy Tells All

Flowers are an intrinsic part of the PaPaYa! booth experience.  In a world of harsh lighting and long rolls of old orange carpet, the flowers offer that special touch of life that we love and cherish.

Papaya Totes Steal The Show

 

Last week Team PaPaYa! set up shop at the NYIGF. It gave us a perfect opportunity for us to debut our awesome new “Luxe Totes”. 

Pictured here is Sabrina Ward Harrison's "Free Yourself" bag, available Oct. 15.

Special thanks to Bethany bARTon for rocking the totes in the pic.

Korean Vogue

 

These wonderful images were recently passed my way by a fellow designer and friend. Who couldn't help but fall in love with this enchanting spread from Korean Vogue. 

There is such a great pairing of billowing shapes with soft muted tones in the fabrics, contrasting with the bold geometric hairstyles.

Inspiration: Heathery, Dreamtime Imagery

There's something very personal and touching to me about those places where nature and man overlap. Particularily those places that belong to the wild but have traces of history tucked away like treasure. Bridges over streams, shacks reclaimed by the woods, broken china on the beach,...moss between the brick.  Man's fingerprint comingling with living things is magic in itself. A sweet reminder that we have sprung up from the same cracks in nature.   I find these captivating, hazey, flower-child-meets dreamtime -photographs to convey this feeling perfectly. (and reminds me a lot of Sabrina's True Living Project Series) I'm loving this moody style and I am eager to experiment with paintings that have a similar vibe.  It also inspires me to go shell hunting, flower picking, maybe make some mobile's.  I've been dying to do that with driftwood this summer.  Must make that happen!  How about you? Did you get a chance to collect and create somplace magic this summer?

Clockwise: woodland bungalow via wideopenspaces. Ball Jar flowers via Ritzy Bee. Gorgeous Pink fireweed by Marie Ek. Pucker face by Elif Sanem Karakoc. Girl in flowers from Empty Spaces. Flower's n fence here.  Sunny field from Rose Coloured Rain.

Artist We Love: Yellena

Artist Yellena was a nice find recently over at Poppytalk Handmade.  She describes her artwork as, "at once floral and alien, organic and sci-fi, crafty and fantastic."  I agree!  Her prints are still direct from her for only 20.00.  I'd love to see these illustrations on super big paper.  How cool would these be blown up at the end of a hallway.  (Hint hint Yellena...)  There's something so friendly about her style and her colors.  This makes me want to rip into some watercolors.  I want to know more about her process... Isn't it beautiful!

Atlanta Bartlett's -Easy Elegance

A book that we're loving for inspiration right now is Easy Elegance by stylist Atlanta Bartlett.

It celebrates an appreciation of the imperfect, shying away from trendy consumerism, and driven by a true love of time-worn things and functional design.

 

Individuality reigns in these chic comfy spaces!

Room by room tour of PaPaYa: The Design Room

Sarah and I went a little overboard taking photographs getting ready for the tour of our studio on Decor 8. So many fun extra shots of the interiors here, we felt compelled to post them!

The design team uses this space to review product samples, craft & create artwork in, and gather together for project meetings. There is also an awesome little photography studio tucked away in a small room in here too that we use to take  catalog and web product shots. 

Right now our cubby style shelving is filled with our up-and-coming Luxe Tote Bags, and water bottles.

I'm not sure what's going on with Edgar here (our carved deerhead)... I guess he had a wild night!