Current Obsessions: Simple Is Best

Hope this missive finds you in front of a fan, reading a book, eating an ice cream, in the front seat on the way to a lake, or otherwise soaking up summer. Ahead, 19 things we’re noting this weekend:

Above: Unplugged and off-grid: simple summer inspiration courtesy of A Stylish, Low-Impact Retreat in Sonoma by Charles de Lisle. Photograph by Eric Petschek.

• Limited-edition linens to admire—”two embroidery worlds together on a single piece: my line-based backstitch embroidery, and their traditional Ukrainian cross-stitch patterns in black and red.”
• Ooh, Plain Goods is opening another location (where else? in Maine).
• A scullery kitchen that’s made to do “exactly what it was always supposed to do: be practical.”
• Love this built-in bed and desk in a renowned architect’s place in Ecuador (hat tip: Annie).
• Block Shop sample sale alert!
• Big news: One of our all-time favorite cool-kid spots in Copenhagen is now shoppable online.
• In keeping with this month’s Editors’ Cut theme: shells as wine glasses in Navarra, Spain.
• Would you hang a quilt in lieu of wallpaper?
• “Finally we offer our one bedroom garden apartment in the Luberon,” write our friends at Marston House. Email sharon@marstonhouse.com for details.
• Love these citronella candles (and they’re on sale).
• New from Wonder Valley: hand wash that’s like “a riot of wild herbs.”
• Our favorite triple threat, gardener/photographer/ceramicist Frances Palmer, has a new exhibition of her prints and terra-cotta pieces at Berkshire Botanical Garden from August 15 to October 5.
• Bookmarking this to return to in the middle of winter, when the landscape has been sapped of color.
• Kier’s favorite new Instagram account.
• When the plants match the walls.
• “This is big,” writes in Kendra. “Andy Goldsworthy is bringing his very physical responses to nature to the interior of the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, from now until November 2. It’s his largest indoor exhibition and looks back over a career of more than five decades.”
• Flower obsessives, the August Editors’ Cut over on Gardenista is just for you.
• Must-read for all bird lovers: 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Bird Baths.
• P.S. Have you heard? We’ve got a new book on the way—and if you’ve ever wondered how to make your garden kinder to the earth and easier to care for, this one’s for you. Preorder your copy now.