Gilding the Lily reader, Steen, will have to be thanked for this one. Gilding has been rather neglectful of this blog for a little while now; time just has not been on her side and Life won’t get the fuck off her back, the obnoxious little monkey! So thank you to all those readers who have faithfully thought of Gilding when she has been so absent. Now on to the fabulous!

Designed by London architect Julian Hakes, if you take a moments look at it, you’ll see exactly what it is–and it is brilliant!

Called Mojito, the design is a shoe–minus a footplate. The single piece wraps around the wearer’s foot and uses the natural design of the bridge of the foot to complete the balance of the shoe. The foot’s built-in strength from its form allowed Hakes to deconstruct the common shoe into its essential parts, support for the heel and ball of the foot. You can read the artist’s account of how she came to design the shoe on dezeen.

While the shoe is not in production yet, Hakes is currently in talks with specialist shoe fabricators for the initial prototypes. [Via: <a href= "http://www.dezeen.com/2009/09/23/mojito-shoe-by-julian-hakes/#more-41637" target= "_blank"dezeen]

Talk about a cry-fest. Even Gilding cried like a ninny when she read this one.

Diagnosed with brain cancer, 6-year old Elena Desserich was given 135 days to live–she lived 255 (2007). After her passing, Elena’s parents began finding hundreds of notes hidden in any nook and cranny throughout their home, all of them from their daughter. What must have been an exhaustive feat during her illness, Elena created these little love notes, a few of which are shown here:

…these notes were found tucked in backpacks, dresser drawers, between bookshelves and CD cases.

Elena’s parents have had these notes published in a book entitled Notes Left Behind to fund the non-profit organization The Cure Starts Now, dedicated to fighting pediatric brain cancer. Visit Notes Left Behind for the full story and details on where you can purchase the book.

Now if you’ll escuse this deviant; she has to go take care of this blasted heart that has suddenly grown two sizes too big. No body likes a nice Gilding.

Via: neatorama

Hmm…so, supposedly inspired by deep sea dwelling creatures (you know, those kind that lure prey with a dangling light over their head), Gilding has to say, she sees it, but…honestly, it looks more like a scorpion. In any case, the Light Up comes from the Netherlandic design house ontwerpers. Anyhoo, there’s not much to say on the chair, specs can be seen here, but it is a neat aesthetic anyway. Though the chair touts being ergonomic, Gilding is more specifically drawn to the enormous light hanging above the recliner. Striking, isn’t it.

These pieces are so nicely earthy and organic. From Studio Robert Stadler, the Tephra Formations project derives its name from the Greek word tephra, meaning “ash”, and connotates a sense of deadly elegance, dainty and voluminous, crushing and airy. Given to the wild nature of volcanos, Tephra can be made in all sizes and shapes to mimick this unpredictable nature.

Tephra is upholstered in black leather with tufted details, much like that of a Chesterfield sofa, lending a feeling of proper elegance to a form that is otherwise organic and unpredictable. [Via Yanko Design]

Gilding wants an open field full of abandoned and rusted vintage cars in her hometown backyard!

Russian photographer and bloger, Ilya Varlamov, used clever lighting to capture these eerie photographs of abandoned vintage cars rusting away in this known field in Russia.

More photos from this series can be seen on English Russia or Ilya Varlamov’s Livejournal.

Home is where the horror is. At least for writer-director Oren Peli. Photographed at his home in a seven-day marathon sprint in 2006 with a crew of three that included Peli’s then girlfriend and his bestfriend, Paranormal Activity is slated to be the scariest, nightmare inducing movie of all time.

Read more on the movie, how it came to be, and a bit of history on the director here.

In honor of Banned Books Week, these are the books Gilding never had as a child, but wished she did.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
~Albert Camus

About Snow-bo, visit its official page.

“Waiting” by sergeyloie

Time to revel in the celebration of relaxing from the fruits of labor. Now time to go squander all that hard earned money on some frivolous bit of tourism driven enterprise.

Gilding is at a bit of a conundrum. If you’ll scroll down the page you’ll notice that most of Gilding’s lovely images have been replaced by Photobucket’s ugly “Exceeds Bandwidth” sticker. On the one hand that ugly intrusion means that you readers have made Gilding the Lily rather popular. Popular enough at least to, well, exceed the bandwidth. On the other hand, that means that if Gilding doesn’t want this to happen every month that she’ll have to start forking out money to pay for an increase in bandwidth with Photobucket. That means forking out money for a blog that doesn’t make money. But without the images, Gilding the Lily isn’t so popular. Popular, but not that popular. That could be interpreted as either without the images the blog isn’t as I catching in the great wide web. Or, that no one really wants to read Gilding’s rants–but the pictures are pretty! Its ok, Gilding knows the truth of the matter. No need to lie to sooth her ego. You can do that with monetary donations and all will be forgiven.

Anyhoo, just be a little patient. Remember, Gilding is a college student. Which means she’s fucking poor. The pictures will be back up at the end of the month when her bandwidth limit resets. We’ll have to see just how long it takes to run up the bandwidth at that point. In the meantime, Gilding will be thinking about what she wants to do–spend money and starve for her art of ranting on the interweb. Or deal with this rude intrusion in her creative process by Photobucket.

Love me, hold me, keep my blog warm in the cold, cold bareness of no images.

Forget all the other sex chairs that Gilding has shown you — all one, no two, of the them — because this chair trumps them — at least in the “that’s so dirty” category. No matter how you look at it, there is no mistaking that this chair is meant for hardcore romping — not to be mistaken with a modern curvy-linear chaise that just happens to be a chair for the dirty mambo.

Commissioned by Edward VII of Britain in 1890, this “Two’s company, three’s a sex throne” creation was designed for orgiastic indulgence. Named fauteuil d’amour, or the “armchair of love,” Edward VII used the chair when he visited the brothel of Le Chabanais, one of the great bordellos of Paris. This chair, however, which can be seen in Prague, is actaully a replica of the original. In a fit of post-war Puritanism, the bordellos were shut down, the ladies and their gentleman “punters” scattered, and the chair? The chair was bought in auction in 1946 by an industrialist. It was then resold at Drouot, another Parisian auction house. In 1996 the chair was auctioned for a final time and thus still resides with its owner, one Herve Poulain.

And when journalist Sean Thomas asked Poulain if the chair was still in use he replied…”Naturellement.”

Atta Boy, Poulain!

[Via Chair Blog, Filthy Gorgeous Things, and "Two's company, three's a sex throne]

Have you missed your Gilded Mistress? It has been a while since she has made a post of merit. She’s had quite a bit on her mind and even more to stuff it with on her plate.

And with that, there is ever so much she could share, but why speak of stress when she can dote on this?

We do all remember Gilding’s love affair with birdcages. For these Gilding would not only willingly but adoringly allow Mr. Gilding to hook up an external set of speakers to that monstrosity of a television that lives in our living room.

The Music Cage is a wireless speaker system from Japanese company Nendo. Not only do you get great stereo sound, you get classy, elegant, and cleverly disguised speakers that won’t make you cringe when you look at them. Comes in your choice of black or white and can be suspended from the ceiling or placed on a shelf. Other features: they have the ability to stream music via a Wi-Fi network, computer, or Blutooth enabled mobile phone. [Via Home Tone and dezeen]

Gilding is dreaming of a home office setup — well, at least one that suits her needs and want and doesn’t break her budget. Is that so much to ask! So how about some inspiration:

Yep, that’s a flat screen monitor in the center vanity mirror. How hot is that!

Photo by aerialphotographer on panoramio.

Located in Lede, the smallest of Belgium’s municipalities, in a park close to the village center, stands the decayed castle Koninklijk Gesticht van Mesen, named after its last owner. At least, according to this photoblog by Rene Knoop, compiled in 2008, the castle still stands, though talks of demolishing the castle have been in circulation since the late 70’s, after procedural mistakes revoked the once in place historic preservation act that had been protecting it. A more recent protection request was submitted for the preservation of the castle, but the ravages of time and nature on its remnants outweighed the proverbial costs it would take the repair it, so the protections proposal failed.

Built in the 16th century, the castle remained in the family Bette until the 1800’s when it was used for the local gin distillery, a sugar refinery, a potash refinery, and a tobacco factory, which was housed in the caves of the castle.

In the 1900’s the castle was sold to a religious order who bult an impressive neo-gothic chapel. After the First World War an institution bought the castle and established a school for the local children, in which a new aisle was added as well as a Dutch pavillion and a boarding school. adding more buildings to the already expansive property that included several outbuildings, like stables and an orangery. In total, Mesen takes up a total of 7 hectares, half the total size of the city of Ledes itself.

Photo by Past Glory.

Sentinels, photo by Opacity.

Forbidden-Places has some really nice comparison images of the current building and the way that same photograph looked in the castle’s prime, as well as more history on the castle. Past Glory also has more photographs and history on Castle Mesen. Both websites, also, have several archives of other abandoned ruins explored.

And just for shits and giggles, telefuncker has a whole thread on abandoned Belgium castles — or slightly smaller but equally majestic mansion.