alt christmas tree

from because we can:



so pretty.

rose and radish sale

phew - i needed a break. but now am back and loving the Rose and Radish Holiday Clean Sweep Sale, especially the above Serigraph. beautiful.

leanimal redux

she did it again! winning with a fabulous dress. i wish the photo was better and also showed the back... beautiful.



and you can actually buy it here (if you have an Amex and the not so small matter of $650 to spare...)

korto also continues to shine. and kenley to irritate (but to put together beautiful clothes...) also of note: diane von furstenberg was such a gracious guest judge - loved her!

leanimal

my diminishing credibility as "non-tv watching" person aside, i wanted to spotlight leanne- one of the designers on the current project runway season. this is the best (well, only) re-interpretation of car seat belts (car parts etc - look at that fringe - it is a former seat belt) into clothing that i've ever seen.




leanne has her own line - leanimal - and so every time she pops up on the screen - she's very innocent looking in real life - i can't help but think - confusedly - of a tigress.

anyhow, check out ana's weekly rundown of each week's looks. ana has a great eye and its always interesting to see her take on the show. as for the designers in general, i am liking leanne, korto, kenley sometimes (she can be pretty annoying). in the extremely annoying camp: blayne and suede. hoping there are more challenges like the brooke shields one and fewer with car parts in the future...

mad men

if you don't watch this show, you need to start right now.

i am not a big tv person (usually i surf the web while "watching" whatever i am "watching"), but this is one you have to really watch - all of it. there's so much cool mid century design and clothing (and not so cool but riveting behavior) to see:






it is also - evidenced by last night's episode - brilliantly put together (plot, character etc). you must see this!

wall decals aren't new but i think they are super cool...

...especially if you want to do something fun and unexpected but are just a tad nervous about 'fun and unexpected' going horribly wrong in some spendy-to-fix other medium...

blik giraffe wall decal from velocity art & design.

fun stuff!

these are cute and sort of edgy all at once:




coin purses by ivana helsinki via bloesem.

and speaking of bloesem, the adorable booties i got nancy earlier this year from bloesem's etsy shop are super booties (according to nancy). they apparently stay on very well (in addition to being incredibly soft). nancy told me the the bloesem etsy shop will be back up soon and, therefore, more bootie buying opportunities will abound...

oh baby

i letterpressed these a while back for a friend's baby announcements:




making these was pretty hard for me - i still have lots to learn - but worth it.

i was going to put up a shot of just one single announcement but then i decided i liked this one best - the letterpress really pops next to the newspaper and other every day items.

lazy daisy

so pretty in a woozy, hazy sort of way:

you can get it here.

food + flower + style

i would like to take a flower arranging class from Anna Campbell of Food + Flower + Style...

it looks like she's only got july 12 posted but hopefully there will be more dates soon. she has a cool business with her husband that she describes (along with a description of her loft) here.

supersound

at the renegade craft fair, i particularly liked the Sonnenzimmer booth. they print and sell striking posters like this one titled Smalltown Supersound Showcase 2008:









you can buy one here.



also, if you are in sf, i highly recommend going to the deyoung and watching the movie about dale chihuly's glass making/glass blowing. what an awesome combination of brute strength and fine detail work. also, what a great example of successful collaborative work - in art or otherwise. see the movie before going into the show!

alberto seveso

i came across this by alberto seveso on .v:



dreamlike and stunning.

renegade craft fair

the renegade craft fair is this weekend in sf.

i can't wait to see what ali of designalicious brings... she makes such beautiful jewelry:



i am also looking forward to seeing sara paloma's pottery in person:



and so much more. go check it out if you can!

funky light

this pendant light fixture rocks! from hive modern.

another funky lighting idea calling out to me loud and clear right now (way cheaper too) is to get 2-3 of these from ikea and hang them at different heights...

the camaraderie of the peloton

my friend sarah is competing in the Tour de France Knit Along. i love her attitude (and way with words): "My hope is that the camaraderie of the peloton will help me to speed quickly through another knitted object."

these are pretty awesome knitted objects. i have a cool brown knitted cap from sarah and have seen some pretty sweet other creations. to wit: antonio the fish.

me and you

tomorrow is our anniversary and this card from linda and harriet says it all...

happy anniversary to my other half ;)

thanks to joanna at a cup of jo for the find!

really great ... door sets

didn't know what a door set was until yesterday, but now i do. isn't the above rad? it's from Rocky Mountain Hardware.

cooling off

it is hot here, really really hot! we're thinking of attaching shade sails to the side of our house and in the garden to cool everything off...

Image courtesy of Apartment Therapy

just pretty

suzani boxes from jayson home & garden.

babies on the brain (part 2 of ?)

more and more new babies on the way! above: a beautiful baby rattle from canoe in portland.

chairloom

via the wonderful bloesem, i discovered chairloom - a PA company doing some very cool things with virginia johnson fabric (which i adore) and vintage chairs.






i always love a contrast between old and new and a bright virginia johnson fabric will make me happy anytime - so i am really a fan!

Image courtesy of Chairloom

floors floors floors

floors are on my mind these days. secretly i want to ebonize my floors ala the marc jacobs store in nyc...





... and then paint all the walls Super White and fill the house with colorful modern art (this is what I read Michael Govan the director of LACMA and his wife Katherine Ross did in their LA house). while i luuuuv that look (the light goes literally skittering across the black floor and the art provides all the color and interest), i realize it's not so easy to live in a modern art museum. plus i actually have stuff (that needs hiding places) and oh - no budget for all the super edgy modern art.

so our house will take a somewhat different direction - someday (right now i just need to get the floors done and move into the thing and then i will be a happy camper...)


anyhow, thinking about floors reminded me of this painting the Floor Scrapers by Gustave Caillebotte:

you can see how beautiful the light is as it skims across the floors... just exactly what you want hardwood floors to do in/for a house...

miranda's apt

i am dying to see sex & the city and these photos of miranda's apt from the set (via casa sugar) caught my attention. why do i think my new house is going to be as jumbled? i don't even have kids - just too much random stuff which i am getting newly and suddenly reacquainted with as i try to cajole and cram and stuff it into boxes...



at any rate, her jumbly-ness looks like well loved jumbly-ness (though based on the previews i worry that all is not well in the miranda-steve hhold)...

blurb - i like it!

i just came across this fun website called blurb - where you can create a book (very nice looking a la the above) from your blog, blog photos, flickr photos, whatever, you name it - and then even sell it!

i have been a lame blogger recently! here's my excuse - i'm moving. moving... is a big (but worth it) pain. we're moving into a new house and there is an endless (endless!) stream of design possibilities to contemplate.

i've also finished a letterpress project that i want to show a bit of - but i need to ask permission first. hopefully soon!

capsule is coming!

this weekend, capsule sf returns to hayes valley. i truly loved this design festival last spring. i met so many really talented and friendly designers and printers and i am bummed to miss it this year (but happy to heading to be heading to nyc!).


Graphic design and rendering above by Jenna Sunde

if you are reading and needing a design fix this weekend, head over to hayes valley on sunday... and have fun!

25 under 25

kathryn parker almanas is featured in the new book, 25 Under 25: Up-and-Coming American Photographers, Volume 2. i wrote about her here and can't wait to see which image(s) made it into the book.

there is an exhibition related to the book too on May 29–June 28, 2008 at the Gulf and Western Gallery at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU 721 Broadway, New York, New York. and an opening reception on 5/29 from 6–8 p.m. wish i wasn't leaving nyc on 5/27!

a good eye

no, make that a great one. ana, who writes the super fun blog stylings and so on and so forth, has started a photo monday post - in which she posts (her) latest photo shots such as this one:



i have the good fortune to work with ana and she told me she takes these with her new nikon ds. they are....



... almost heartbreaking in their beauty.

ana also writes AWESOME fashion posts featuring the fabulous, the fierce, and (sometimes for laughs) the fugly best clothes off the latest runway shows. definitely check her blog out!

here's a stunner

i just saw this on apartment therapy. so gorgeous! (i also wouldn't mind being at that beach peeking out of the left corner of the frame right now...)

greek genius

here's ashley again...



modeling the vintage red spanish shirt she uncovered at new bohemia in austin. during our trip, she, who is oh-so-in-the-know about all things greek, also got me hooked on korres.

do you know korres?





i think it is time you did.

korres make (truly, really) all natural skin and hair products. i've been doing a lot of reseach on product ingredients recently (here's a good resource) and you'd be shocked at what lurks in the ostensibly harmless (normal baby shampoo!) and even heavily promoted "natural/organic" products (don't get me started ...).

but korres ... now here's a company that knows how to put a pretty (in the most holistic sense) product in a very pretty package.

Image courtesy of Sephora

a wrong turn or two

my husband and i set out for kauai last week but due to a couple metaphorical travel wrong turns ended up in palm springs. i've been before, but never when it was just this hot and just this perfect weather. and we are here at the parker palm springs which (designed by Jonathan Adler) is quirky and cheeky and just-the-right size (not a huge lumbering resort place) hotel. it is also stunning:




at night, these lanterns (which from a distance seem like regular chinese laterns seem, from up close, to be made of mother of pearl) light up all over the place:




also, you may have seen this before but check out the entrance:



a most excellent selective use of the color orange. it is pretty clear where you are supposed to go in ;)

the many good sides of ... wine

i just love this table, so gorgeous and so... well, good! cliff spencer makes it from reclaimed wine stained oak staves (from wineries). all the better for the stains i think!



Via Inhabitat

aviary in austin

our last day in Austin was last Sunday - Easter. we didn't have high hopes that shops would be open, but took a shot and called Aviary to see. one of the shop's owners, Marco, answered and said no the shop wasn't open but that he'd open it up for us whenever we wanted to swing by.

and so we did and had a blast checking out all of the gorgeous goods, including cards and prints by Umlauted, an Austin based print shop. these are some of my favorites:




i also loved the jewelry by Sampagita and the fun kids products by Offi and the moderngoods china (see below for a pic)...

even more than the goods, though, we loved the company! marco made us espresso and sat us down at the bar in his store for a good long chat about his career as a photographer and shop owner and what its like to run a small business. like kathryn at homegirls, marco seemed just so happy to be doing what he's doing. really inspiring.

thank you marco for everything! you rock.

home girls

in austin, we made a special trip to visit home girls and boy was it worth it.



welcoming us with a great big smile: kathryn blanchard, one half of the mom-daughter team behind this fascinating store full of beautifully refurbished and recycled furniture.

i was really taken with this chair (only $65!) that kathryn is in the process of re-upholstering in what sounded like a fabulous fabric:




kathryn told us all about their reasons for starting the store; "wanting to do something fun and something happy" i believe she said. and happy and fun abounds at this jewelbox of a place.

kathryn and sarah, i am calling you when i get a house!

awesome austin

last weekend, my friend ashley and i hit the town of austin texas hard. we had a great time and, we both feel, did the town proud - going to tons of live shows, tasting every mexican morsel we could get our hands (mouths?) on and, of course, visiting the super super shops. it was, in short, my kind of travel destination heaven. sigh.

one of the best things about this place is that cool stuff is around every corner. for instance, this:




upon turning a corner on the ut campus, we came across this sculpture called "Penetrable" by Jesus Rafael Soto. you could walk through it, were invited to do so by the signs... and it felt so funny - like you were moving through thicker air or kelp or seaweed. as ashley said (i think!), it kind of makes you think more about the space you inhabit.



it also looks so freaking cool.

stay tuned - tomorrow i will post about 2 of our favorite shops in austin and their fabulous and friendly shopkeepers...

rose and radish sale

rose and radish is having a great big in store sale this weekend! discounts get better throughout the weekend (45% off on sunday)... if you are in sf, check it out!

Image courtesy of Rose and Radish

landscapes

over the past weekend, i came across a couple of landscapes that made me pause.

one literal: the work of huettl landscape architecture

loved their olive grove at the sf garden show. so peaceful. here's a shot of some of their other work:



fascinated by contrasts as always, i like how they juxtapose tough concrete with the hazy greens of olive trees and grasses and water sounds (take my word on it on that last point)

Image courtesy of Huettl Landscape

should i ever have the opportunity for them to create a mediterranean garden for me in the hazy future, i'll take it.

a second landscape - that of a nama rococo print spied in rose and radish.



i left it in the shop but thought better and ordered it (the last one i was told!). but watch her wallpaper and other prints. this was a splurge but it was sort of a special celebratory weekend so it was (i am going to tell myself this) in order.

Image courtesy of Rose and Radish and Nama Rococo