nounou LOVES...

this month’s edition of nounou loves… is guest edited by gotham-native irini arakas.

as a designer, a stylist, and head of brand and content at floral and event design house, lewis miller design, this multi-hyphenate mother of a sweet (and salty) six year old, never stops creating and finds endless inspiration in her hometown and beyond. 

with her diverse range of interests and projects, we are always curious about what’s catching irini’s eye. this month she is letting us in on what she’s collecting, designing and looking out for. we promise it will be impossible not to discover something new!

i’m mad for ceramics. i love freyja crow’s candlestick holders and butter dishes, dan mccarthy’s face pots, beholder’s spikey vessels and francesca di matteo’s loopy works of art are also dreamy. anything that feels slightly off is just right to me. 

creative growth is a favourite destination of mine, and an endless source of inspiration. they are a non-profit organization based in oakland, california that advances the inclusion of artists with developmental disabilities and provides them with studio space and gallery representation. aurie ramirez, one of their artists and a fave of mine. i am lucky enough to own some of her paintings and drawings. they are dark and inky but also very romantic and playful. i also love john hiltunen’s animal collages. 

it would be remiss of me not to shout out an nyc street artist, corn queen - she is aces. her work is cheeky, wheat pastes of pigeons taking a bubble bath or dressed as a nun eating fritos. i am obsessed. 

gunning for that mom-of-the-year award but i’ll settle for a core memory, i will be pulling my daughter out of school (shhh….!) and flying her to los angeles to see kiss kick off their farewell tour at the hollywood bowl this month. 

back in nyc, the new gilder center at the natural history museum is a wonder and a total vertiginous shock to your system. new yorkers love to complain about new buildings popping up but this one, a litte-gaudie-esque, is a poetic slam dunk. the exterior is made of white-pink granite and the interior looks like the opening of a giant cave. i also love that it was designed by female architect jeanne gang and there is an enormous interactive butterfly vivarium inside.

the ear inn on spring and washington streets is one of the oldest drinking establishments in the city and is always bubbling with interesting people of all ages and vocations. on any given night, the place feels like a great dinner party, except instead of a giant table, it’s a whiskey-soaked bar. you’re shoulder to shoulder with strangers, eavesdropping on interesting conversations. i missed that so much during covid. listening in on little snippets of someone’s life — it’s just delicious. i am very happy when i walk into that bar and see it bursting with people again.